Match date: 5 March 2013

A lot of build up towards this match with Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Old Trafford for the first time since his £80m move to Real Madrid. Another talking point was the rumour of Jose Mourinho’s next move being to Manchester Untied and he certainly did not do himself harm there in his post match comment.

Welbeck Keeps Spot, Nani and Giggs In, Rooney Dropped

About an hour before the match, it was announced that Alex Ferguson chose to drop Wayne Rooney to the bench in favour of Ryan Giggs. Really, it doesn’t come as that much of a surprise that Rooney was dropped. If you think back to the previous leg at the Bernabeu, where Rooney played on the right side of Manchester United’s midfield, you’ll remember that Fabio Coentrao was able to get forward with relative ease. Coentrao had two opportunities that really tested David De Gea that match and had a quality cross that Ronaldo headed wide, so Ferguson must have thought that he really needed to neutralize him. He selected Giggs to do so, deploying the 39 year old on the right side. It was also Giggs’ 1000th competitive appearance for Manchester United, an amazing number, especially for the Premier League.

With Giggs on the right to stop Coentrao, it was Welbeck that Ferguson brought up when asked about Rooney’s omission from the team. He mentioned that he really wanted to stop Xabi Alonso from being able to dictate the pace of the game and that Welbeck was better suited at tracking back than Rooney (as previously mentioned). To be fair, Welbeck does win a higher percentage of ground duals (in the Premier League) than Rooney, winning 49%. Rooney, in fact, wins the lowest amount in United’s team, with 32%. Rooney is more likely to win a tackle at 94% compared to 79%, but Welbeck has attempted ten more in about 500 less minutes.

Fair play to Ferguson, both of those tactical deployments served their defensive purpose well; Giggs tracked Coentrao’s runs very well and when necessary, he helped Rafael deal with Ronaldo. Xabi Alonso couldn’t spray his famed long diagonal passes around the pitch as much as he would have liked, instead he consistently had to look to his full backs as outlets, using Coentrao frequently.

Prior to the Red

Manchester United were on top of the match. Xabi Alonso couldn’t get the ball forward to push on Real’s attacks when they had to possess the ball for longer periods of time and Ronaldo had a hard time getting on the ball and when he did, he didn’t look to be any sort of threat. Along with his defensive benefit, Welbeck’s pace was the biggest threat to Real’s goal. He was able to get onto passes in behind Real’s high defensive line, something that Barcelona weren’t able to do in the last two matches against Real.

United were able to counter very effectively due to Real having to get more bodies forward as they looked to break down United’s defense, the pace of Nani and Welbeck, and Real’s high line. United scored on a counter started by Rafael. The young Brazilian full back bursted forward and played a ball into Welbeck who was sprinting into Real’s box. The ball eventually found its way off of Sergio Ramos and under Diego Lopez’s leg to give United the lead on the night and on aggregate.

Mourinho Introduces Modric to Respond to Red

I posted that .gif of the red card for you to come to your own conclusion. I personally think a red card is harsh. It is certainly a bookable offense, but I think of Nigel de Jong’s cleat into Xabi Alonso’s chest during the 2010 World Cup final that should have been a red but was only a yellow and think to myself that this certainly isn’t worse than that. Roy Keane thought that it should have been a red, so opinions are up in the air on the matter.

The fact is though that the red card changed the entire setup of the game. At XI v XI, Ferguson had gotten his selection spot on. After the red card, Jose Mourinho responded brilliantly by bringing on Luka Modric for Arbeloa, moving Sami Khedria to the right back position.

With Nani leaving the field, someone had to take his place in the second bank of four when United were defending, especially with the energy and support that Khedira offered as an advancing right back. The task feel to Welbeck. This move though proved costly for United in the middle of the pitch as it allowed Xabi Alonso to have freedom to get the ball forward, which pushed the United defense even deeper when defending.

Sami Khedira already had a good amount of space in midfield prior to the sending off and was able to get forward with relative ease, but wasn’t that effective. After the sending off, when Luka Modric came on, he had an incredible amount of space and time on the ball, due to United being a man down and Xabi Alonso’s forward passes. Below, look at the average positions (courtesy of ESPN and OPTA) of 6, Khedira, and 19, Modric. On paper, they would be drawn up in the same position, but with United down to 10, Modric took full advantage of the space.

In the time that Modric was on, he completed 4 key passes and completed 97% of his 35 passes. He controlled the tempo of the match and was able to pick his time to shoot for the equalizer and set Real on their way.

With Ronaldo, Ozil (who completed 98% of his passes), Kaka, Alonso, Higuain, and now Modric on the field, Real were able to play some delightful football around United’s box. It was Modric who was again involved in the build up to Real’s second goal. He played the initial penetrating pass into Higuain’s feet, who then knocked it back to Ozil and combined with a give and go, then putting in a cross for Ronaldo to get on the end of.

Two minutes after Real scored, Mourinho made another change, this one however, disrupted Real’s shape. Pepe came on for Ozil to play right back, which allowed Khedira to slot back into midfield. Their shape became a little erratic, their domination in United’s half became less frequent, and they began to invite a bit of pressure from United, who now had Rooney on, which forced Diego Lopez into making saves.

Post Match Thoughts

It such a good match to watch and a good tactical battle both before and after the red card. Ferguson picked his startin XI to counter the mistakes that they made in Madrid and if the match had stayed at eleven a side, then maybe United would have gone through, but once they went down to ten men, Mourinho’s special-oneness saw him change the game.

Sadly, this match will mostly be remembered for the red card and for English fans will be another example in their conspiracy theories about UEFA hating English teams, when in fact losing a club like Manchester United at this stage in the competition is financially hurtful for UEFA.

Diego Lopez made some really good reaction saves for Real today and kept them in the game in some ways. He also made some errors; he parried a van Persie shot right at Welbeck, but made up for his mistake with another save. With the problems that Iker Casillas and Mourinho have had this year, could Lopez keep his spot in the side with Casillas returns? The Real fans were singing his name late in the match.

Real’s last three wins have been against Barcelona, Barcelona, and Manchester United. You’d have to say that in their current form, they have to be made one of the favourites for the Champions League this year, with Bayern and Dortmund, who won 3-0 today, the other favourites.