Yesterday we became one of millions of fans, watching the most important club football match of the season on TV. After it ended, the Madrid "Real" football players triumphed at the "San Siro" stadium, and their victory in this tournament evokes mixed feelings.
Firmly becoming the winners of Group A, then already Zinedine Zidane's proteges convincingly defeated the not-in-the-best-form "Roma". "Real" fans, after Rafa Benitez's dismissal, could rejoice and dream again, but they were even luckier with the spells of the later stages. In the quarterfinals, thanks to a great performance by Cristiano Ronaldo in the second leg, they defeated "Wolfsburg", and in the semifinals they beat "Manchester City" 1-0.
Meanwhile, "Atletico" played their worst match against Eindhoven's "PSV", who did not score a single goal. Following them, the undeniable Champions League favorite, the eleven of "Barcelona" fell, and in the semifinals, the favorite's mantle was taken over by Munich's "Bayern".
So, the teams progressed to the final in completely different ways and before it seemed that the "mats" could finally not celebrate a trip to Milan, but focus on the ultimate goal of lifting the trophy. The game of "Real" until yesterday could be called, to put it mildly, nothing special. Diego Simeone and his players had high hopes not only from "Atletico" fans but also from "Barcelona" fans and a large part of neutral spectators. However, decisive matches rarely unfold as expected.
Although "Real" was particularly dull and relied only on Gareth Bale in attack, choosing a defensive tactic Zidane completely outperformed Simeone. First of all, the trio of midfielders who run in the middle, which did not include a number ten, limited the freedom of the "Atletico" duo Gabi and Augusto Fernandez. When the latter was replaced by Yannick Carrasco, the team's football became much more dynamic.
It was only more dynamic compared to the "mats" themselves in the first half. It turns out that "Real" only needed to give opponents control of the ball, allow short passes, and they immediately seemed lost. 70% of the time, "Barca" and "Bayern" clubs preparing for attacks fell short of "Atletico" as they allowed it to counterattack. Zidane's troops brought success with the simplest decision.
"Real" players were much more dangerous in their fast attacks and made many more threatening shots. One can close their eyes and repeat that the first goal was scored from an offside position, but its disallowance does not mean that the match would end 1-0 in favor of "Atletico". For illustration, expected goals statistics clearly show the advantage of "Real".
Looking at these indicators, the "mats" only matched their opponents in the second half, significantly contributing to one of the two "royal" club errors in defense, when Carrasco made his mark. If "Atletico" did not keep their gates by Jan Oblak, Simeone and his team would probably have headed to the locker room after 90 minutes.
One more question arises - where was Fernando Torres on vacation yesterday? In the first half of the match, he did not make a single (!) pass, and only in the second half did he return from vacation in the episode where he earned a penalty kick. Generally, throughout the match, the forward made five passes with 50% accuracy and played until the end of extra time. Expecting goals from him yesterday was definitely naive.
His assistant Antoine Griezmann tried to take the initiative, but a large part of the Frenchman's shots from outside the penalty area were not strong enough and prepared to cause some excitement for Keylor Navas. He had a chance through a penalty kick.
In conclusion, let's mention a few more numbers. "Real" defensive midfielder Casemiro made eight tackles and three interceptions. Simeone named him the most important opponent before the match. He was right. Although Gabi's statistics in these graphs are even better (seven and six respectively), it was Casemiro who was the factor that allowed the "royal" club to effectively play in the second half.
The conclusion of these matches is that tactics and defense won. Just as everything turned upside down comparing both teams' journey to the final, before "Atletico" was confronted with their own weapon. Cristiano Ronaldo, the most scorer of the Champions League, until this sentence was also mentioned zero times because his performance in this final was not decisive.
"Real" can rejoice in their eleventh trophy and second title in this tournament in the last three years. It is not worth calling them the strongest team in Europe, but in Milan, they deservedly defeated their opponents.
Mantas Bureika
