In the Zone: Real Madrid 1-0 Liverpool performance analysis

A 1-0 over Liverpool was enough to earn Real Madrid victory in last season's UEFA Champions League final and it sufficed once more this week as the holders advanced to the quarter-finals.

If a less striking spectacle than Madrid's 5-2 first-leg triumph at Anfield, there was still plenty to catch the eye of the UEFA Technical Observer panel, who shine a light on the game's key tactical points in this article, brought to you by FedEx.

Goals

1-0: Karim Benzema (79)

The Frenchman did not score in four appearances in the group stage but ended the round of 16 with three goals. This third one followed an incisive central pass by Eduardo Camavinga to find him in between the Liverpool centre-halves. As he tried to turn Virgil van Dijk, the ball bounced off the Dutchman towards Vinícius Júnior who, inside the box, missed his kick but still had the speed and presence of mind to stick out a leg and divert the ball to Benzema to steer it home from close range.

Interestingly, his last ten Champions League goals have all been scored against English clubs – not a bad omen to take into next month's quarter-final rematch against Chelsea.

Player of the Match: Karim Benzema

As well as his winning strike, Benzema impressed the UEFA match observer with his overall contribution at centre-forward, occupying the Liverpool centre-halves and helping bring his team-mates into the game. "He always kept the ball well for his team and sought to be in the right position to create a threat," said the observer.

Team formations

Real Madrid

Carlo Ancelotti's men set up in a 4-3-3 with Benzema (9) as centre-forward and Vinícius Júnior (20) acting as the outlet, ready to take his defender on and make things happen. On the right of the forward line, Federico Valverde (15) sought to contain Liverpool's left-sided threat while displaying the energy and power to counterattack and at times helping centrally.

In midfield, Toni Kroos (8) and Luka Modrić (10) controlled the play with Camavinga (12) bringing balance with his left foot and showing good decision-making.

Off the ball, Madrid set up in a solid 4-4-2 with two banks of four. As for the back four, both full-backs had to show their one v one defensive ability with Nacho (6) making four tackles – the most by any player in a white shirt. The match observer commended the defenders' intensity and communication, with Antonio Rüdiger (22) setting the tone.

Liverpool

The English side's starting formation was a 4-3-3 – morphing to 4-5-1 defensively – and it was a structure which accommodated four strikers at the Santiago Bernabéu. The formation displayed here shows the Reds attacking with Mohamed Salah (11) and Andy Robertson (26) holding the width, and Darwin Núñez (27), Diogo Jota (20) and Cody Gakpo (18) interchanging positions – as you see explained in the video analysis above.

Overall, they had a solid and compact defensive structure and if Liverpool took a risk with the high line of their back four, they had a clear way of accumulating four or five players in the Madrid half while Fabinho (3) and James Milner (7) provided midfield balance behind.

Features

Recent history shows Madrid hold the upper hand over Liverpool – with this their seventh win from the last eight Champions League encounters – but for the UEFA match observer, there were elements of both teams' performances worth dwelling on.

The first feature highlighted in the video analysis is the fluidity of the Liverpool front four, whose intelligent interchanging of positions was at the heart of their attacking efforts in the first half.

Both Jota and Gakpo operated as false nines and helped to create overloads. In Clip 1 we see an example of the forwards' rotational play as Gapko goes wide and Salah inside from the right to break on to Trent Alexander-Arnold's ball over the back line and set up a chance for Jota.

Clip 2 offers more fluidity from Jürgen Klopp's front men in a sequence which ends with them getting numbers in the box as Gakpo directs a header wide from one of six crosses completed by the Reds on Wednesday. Only Manchester City this week managed more (nine).

Though chasing the game from the first whistle after that heavy first-leg loss, Liverpool produced some patient, controlled passages of play in the first half according to the observer and the purpose of longer possession sequences like the one in Clip 3 was to tease Madrid up the field. We see the ball go backwards and sideways until Madrid move up – which is the cue for Van Dijk to launch the ball to Salah.

The video pauses to underline Liverpool's plan with a couple of granular details: first Klopp is seen shouting an instruction to Salah to start his run and then the Egyptian signals to Van Dijk to deliver the diagonal pass. This produces a dangerous attack ended by only by fine defending from the excellent Rüdiger. In his technical area, Klopp applauds. Yet unfortunately, from Klopp's perspective, his team's attacking efforts subsided in the second half; after eight shots up to the 37th minute, they did not manage a ninth until the 83rd.

Clip 4 actually begins with another Liverpool attempt to get behind the Madrid high line yet it ends with Ancelotti's team attempting to do the same by exploiting the speed of Vinícius Júnior as Camavinga aims a ball over the top.

As the match observer reflected, the home team were happy to retreat to a compact middle block and from there use quick counterattacks both with Valverde running with the ball and, crucially, Vinícius Júnior offering an important outlet. The Brazilian was in vibrant form on Wednesday – he had more ball carries of 10m or more (12) than any other player in Champions League action this week – and both Clip 4 and Clip 5 illustrate the menace he brought with his pace. In the latter clip, it is actually from a deep free-kick that Éder Militão releases him and the sequence ends with him combining with Benzema in the Liverpool penalty area.

Another feature of Madrid's play was their clever game management, marked by their ability to pick the right moments to go forward. Clip 6, a move begun at the feet of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and ending with a Benzema near-miss, offers a case in point.

At one point in this sequence there are three Madrid players surrounded by five Liverpool players in their own half. A less experienced team might have played themselves into trouble but they escape the pressure as Modrić pulls away from a red shirt and opens up the game with a crossfield ball. This was midway through the second period and up to this point of the half, Madrid had been managing the game well; here they play through Liverpool and this flowing move was the cue to go on and really impose themselves in the final quarter.

The last feature of the video analysis showcases the role of Benzema, highlighted in Clips 7, 8 and 9. He impressed the match observer with his ability to hold up the ball and help Madrid progress up the pitch. The middle clip shows him at work in the lead-up to his winning strike as he drops out to the left and combines with Kroos and Vinícius Júnior before, characteristically, locating exactly the right space, between the two centre-backs, to collect the pass from Camavinga. As the observer remarked, exemplary No9 positioning.

Coaches' assessments

Carlo Ancelotti, Real Madrid coach: "Kroos and Modrić did well today in the sense that perhaps the team was a little uptight about managing possession but they did huge amounts to keep the match under control. We are a very modern team – full of quality, experience, commitment. Total concentration."

Speaking about Eduardo Camavinga: "Camavinga's at a great level now. He's taking advantage of his form and when he plays he's smart at fitting with Modrić and alternating which of them plays higher up the pitch and which stays."

Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool manager: "We came here with the backpack we had with the three goals' difference. You need a special performance and we didn't show a special performance tonight. It was, in moments, a good performance, but Real Madrid was, for the whole game, the team in control of the game. They had the better chances, Ali had to make two sensational saves to keep us in the game."