Match date: 3 April 2013

Jose Mourinho is often seen as the master of mind games, but it was Fatih Terim who tried to get into the minds of Real Madrid, calling their tactics predictable and to be fair, Jose Mourinho has been pretty consistent throughout his Real Madrid tenure, only tweaking minor things here and there, such as the amount of pressing they do or which backs have can push up the field.

Fatih is a little less predictable in his thoughts though, starting the game with a diamond midfield and two very attacking full backs, changing at half time to a 5-3-2 and ending the game in something of a 3-4-3.

Tempo and Pattern

The first half started decently with Galatasaray showing a lot of willingness to get forward and try to get an early goal, but seemed to fall into a pattern of play that saw one side have a bit of pressure without really forcing an issue inside of either box, with the two exceptions being Ronaldo’s opener that came from a great through ball by Ozil to split Galatasary’s centre backs and Benzema’s goal, which came about from poor aerial defending by Eboue at the back post.

Aside from these, the match was played between the penalty areas as each side looked to get the ball into their forwards feet with Galatasaray playing through the middle and using their width through Riera and Eboue, compared to Real Madrid, who tried to get into the space that Riera and Eboue left exposed when they went up the field, through Ronaldo and Di Maria, as you’ll see below. You’ll also notice they attempted just about the same amount of passes and the possession at the end of the match was at 50-50.

However, Galatasaray were unable to produce much promise other than shots from distance by Sneijder, Drogba, Melo, and Altintop and a half decent chance for Eboue after a one-two on the edge of Madrid’s area.

The second half closed the game even more with Terim taking off Wesley Sneijder, who never really got into the game, and replacing him with Zan, a centre back. With this, Real’s chances going forward were less threatening and Galatasaray had a large gap between their midfield and forwards as Drogba was no longer dropping deep and switching positions with Sneijder as he had done in the first half. An example of the gap can be seen below as Galatasaray transition:

Galatasaray’s Changes

As mentioned before, Terim was clearly open to changing things around. Having started in a 4-1-2-1-2, he chose to take off Sneijder, who had a poor game and really wasn’t helping on defense, often allowing Ozil to easily pick up the ball when he dropped deep as he increasingly had to do as Melo, Altintop, and Inan were good at closing the space between their defense well, an example of both statements below, with Ronaldo is the figure in front of the centre backs and Ozil just about at the centre of the picture:

With Sneijder off and Zan on, Galatasaray went to a 5-3-2, which looked something like this:

Theoretically, it is a move that should have allowed Riera and Eboue to get forward with a bit more of a threat, as well as Melo. Both were able to push further up the field, but with their two goals in the first half, the space between Real Madrid’s back four and Khedira and Alonso had gotten tighter and Galatasaray found it almost impossible to get the ball to the feet of either Drogba and Yilmaz to allow them time to produce something for the side.

With Madrid looking quite comfortable, and now up 3-0 through a Higuain header, Terim opted to take off Altintop and replace him with another forward in Bulut, giving Galatasaray a 3-4-3. A few minutes later, he also introduced Amrabat for Riera, who had been trying to make his way up and down the left side for Galatasarary while also trying to contain Di Maria for most of the game. With both sides’ changes, their shapes looked more like this:

The introduction of Pepe came in response to Terim’s changes, with Mourinho wanting to make sure that the visting side weren’t able to get a potentially crucial away goal in the dying minutes of the game, but Terim’s changes certainly added a bit more pressure on the Madrid defense, but left them exposed for counter attacks, none of which Real were able to capitalize on however.

Conclusion

The match didn’t have that much energy about it, but Real Madrid were able to add that little bit extra when they needed to and come away with a 3-0 victory going into the second leg.

It will be interesting to see how Terim sets up his side for the next leg. Sneijder didn’t have a very good game today, but you would have to assume that a player of his quality would be back on the field for an important game, however Galatasaray looked about the same, if not more threatening, when they changed to a more 3-4-3 toward the end of the game and perhaps, having to chase the tie now, Terim may opt to an increasingly attacking lineup in Istanbul.