Match date: 25 February 2015

One of the more interesting matchups in the Champions League due to the similarities in not necessarily style of play, but the intensity and energy that the respective coaches demand from their side.

Roger Schmidt took over Bayer Leverkusen in the summer and has transformed them into one of the most exciting, attacking teams in Europe. Just a few matches ago, they lost to Wolfsburg 5-4. Schmidt was able to name a very strong side and chose to start Drmic over Kiessling as the centre forward in what is a 4-2-3-¼-4-2 hybrid.

Diego Simeone included Saul in his starting XI along with Griezmann and Mandzukic, with Torres on the bench as his side started the match in a 4-1-4-1 with Tiago behind Gabi and Saul in the midfield.

Pressing

Both of these sides are known for their pressing. Much of Atletico Madrid’s success last year was down to their ability to dictate the spaces in which their opposition could play in, allowing them to know the precise moments to press to win the ball. Generally, Atletico Madrid sit in a mid to low block, allowing the opposition to have the ball and then pouncing when the trigger comes, as mentioned above, and launch incredibly quick and effective counter attacks. Leverkusen, however, enjoy to press much further up the field. They like to have possession of the ball in the opposition’s half and their attacks are very pacy, and when they lose the ball, they look to immediately win it back. At times it can look frantic, but Schmidt has the side well drilled and they are typically very good at having covering players.

For much of the match, Leverkusen’s pressing was as expected and it forced Atletico Madrid to bypass their midfield, despite Simeone naming a three man central midfield and instead try to play the ball into Mandzukic, who did relatively well at getting on the end of Atletico’s hopeful balls forward. While Leverkusen were successful at times in the winning the ball back or forcing Atletico to play long into a sometimes isolated Mandzukic, they committed a huge amount of fouls inside Atletico’s half which slowed down the pace of the match. This helped Atletico hugely. Usually the Spanish side enjoys playing against a team with a more patient approach so that they can then change the tempo quickly when they win the ball back, but Leverkusen’s quick play sometimes left Atletico outnumbered and isolated.

During the open 42 minutes of the match, Atletico played in a 4-1-4-1 and defended in a mid block. Tiago was slightly withdrawn from the midfield line, which helped limited the space and movement of Calhanoglu in the behind Drmic. During this time, a lot of Leverkusen’s passing was in the wide areas in the middle third of the field and they were forced back inside or back to Papadopolous and Spahic by Atletico’s pressing. Below is an excellent example of the opening half. Papadopolous is on the ball and Mandzukic has cut off the central passing lane. Tiago is tight to Calhanoglu and Bender is drifting out wide to find space. The arrows are showing Gabi’s movement back into midfield after pushing to Castro, while showing Saul’s movement to press Bender.

After the 42nd minute though, Saul was replaced due to injury, with Raul Garcia coming on and Simeone switched the shape of the team from a 4-1-4-1 to more of a 4-4-2 with Gabi alongside Tiago and Griezmann alongside Mandzukic, although the Frenchman did drop slightly deeper at times.

Atletico’s New Shape Frees Calhanoglu

As mentioned above, Simeone was somewhat forced to change his team’s shape from a 4-1-4-1 to more of a 4-4-2, with Raul Garcia entering the game and playing on the left side of midfield. The change in shape, however, allowed Calhanoglu the ability to find more space as now Gabi and Tiago were forced to apply pressure on Castro and Bender. Below you can see the amount of space that Calhanoglu was able to find.

As a result, Calhanoglu became much more active in the game and got on the ball significantly more than he did in the first half. Leverkusen continued their quick, vertical play, but it was now more effective because there was more space in midfield and the passing lanes to Drmic opened up and Calhanoglu was no longer tightly marked. Calhanoglu scored the only goal of the game and he was able overlap Bellarabi unmarked, drifting from the left side of the pitch to the right without anyone picking him up. At that point, Tiago was even close enough where he could have picked up the Turk, but instead dropped into a centre back position as Godin and Jesus Gamez pressured the ball and Miranda found Drmic, with Juanfran making a recovery run.

Turan Crowded Out

Griezmann never really looked too comfortable playing as a wide man in the first half. Many of his runs were inside and so Turan was responsible for providing width and balance to Atletico Madrid and the Spanish side constantly looked to Turan to provide, not only an outlet, but a spark to the side’s play. Unfortunately for Atletico, Turan was often crowded out by Wendell and Bellarabi, the latter of which did an excellent job recovering to help his full back double team the Atletico man.

Turan stuck to the right hand side of the Atletico Madrid’s attack for much of the game, rarely moving inside or attempting to overload the opposite flank as he and Koke did incredibly well last year and this certainly made it easier for Wendell and Bellarabi to keep him from having the type of influence that Simeone and Atletico Madrid were hoping for.

Conclusion

Atletico Madrid were far from their best on the day and were out-done by the intensity of Leverkusen’s play. Simeone’s switch from a 4-1-4-1 to a 4-4-2 helped Leverkusen work the ball further up the field, crucially freeing up Calhanoglu.

While a 1-0 away defeat could have been worse for the Spanish side, and even more so after Tiago’s sending off, they have a right to feel aggrieved that Torres’ goal from a corner in the second half was ruled out after a the referee crew wrongly ruled the ball had swung out of play before coming back in.

Leverkusen will be pleased, however, as they were able to keep last year’s runners-up from scoring, with huge credit to Leno, who commanded his area very well and made an excellent save on a Tiago chance in the first half.