In the Zone: Real Madrid 2-0 Chelsea performance analysis

Real Madrid will travel to London for Tuesday's UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg holding a 2-0 advantage – and plenty of reasons to believe.

In this analysis brought to you by FedEx, the UEFA Technical Observer Panel focuses on two particular aspects of their first-leg success against Chelsea: the threat of their quicksilver wide attackers, Rodrygo and Vinícius Júnior, and the work of full-backs Dani Carvajal and Eduardo Camavinga.

Goals

1-0: Karim Benzema (21)

Benzema had struck his ten previous Champions League goals against English clubs – including a hat-trick against Chelsea last season. Now he took that sequence to 11. Picked out by a Toni Kroos crossfield pass, Carvajal floated an angled ball towards the back post and Vinícius Júnior got ahead of Wesley Fofana to connect on the stretch, steering the ball goalwards. Although Kepa Arrizabalaga got a hand to block the shot, Benzema was in position to tap in the rebound for his 90th goal overall in the competition.

2-0: Marco Asensio (74)

Three minutes after his introduction, Asensio struck following a well-worked move from a corner. Luka Modrić played short to Kroos who in turn fed Vinícius Júnior inside the box and the Brazilian sent the ball on to Asensio, waiting inside the D from where he swept a low shot inside the near post. With it, he achieved the milestone of the most goals by a substitute in the Champions League (nine), though from a defensive perspective the match observer felt Chelsea had been "slow to react" to the set piece.

Player of the Match: Vinícius Júnior

The Brazilian livewire was a constant menace to Chelsea and earned rich praise from the UEFA Technical Observer Panel: "He was the outstanding individual threat for Real Madrid. Chelsea had a plan to stop him but his consistency, intensity and energy during the game shone through. He provided two assists and was the difference in yet another game at Champions League level."

Team formations

Real Madrid

Carlo Ancelotti set his side up in a 4-3-3 which included three out-and-out forwards with Rodrygo (21) starting on the right as he had in the round of 16 win at Anfield. In midfield, Fede Valverde (15) – commended by the observer for his drive and intensity – and Modrić (10) had the flexibility to look for space internally ahead of Kroos (8), who would sit more. As this graphic of Madrid's attacking formation shows, full-backs Carvajal (2) and Camavinga (12) would move inside during Madrid's passages of possession – a tactic elaborated on in the Features section below.

Chelsea

In his second game as Chelsea caretaker manager, Frank Lampard went for a 3-5-2 formation, explaining before kick-off that he wanted strength in the centre of the pitch to "match the Real Madrid midfield, who have got three world-class players" – hence the selection of N'Golo Kanté (7) alongside Enzo Fernández (5) and Mateo Kovačić (8).

The graphic above shows the Londoners' starting formation off the ball – a low block with duo of Raheem Sterling (11) and João Félix (17) chosen in attack for their counterattacking ability. After Ben Chilwell's (21) red card, the shape changed to a 5-3-1 before Chelsea ended the match in a 4-4-1.

Features

Real Madrid are a team whose players have clear roles and carry them out exceptionally well through every department. To narrow the focus to on one particular department – their attack – they have now scored in all but one of their last 67 Champions League home fixtures and if Benzema and Asensio got the goals on Wednesday night, the impact of the young wide attackers Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo caught the eye of the UEFA analysis unit.

Vinícius Júnior took the Player of the Match plaudits yet Rodrygo shone too and he comes under the microscope in the video above. Clips 1 and 2 offer examples of the threat he posed with his runs behind the Chelsea defence. In the first we see the 22-year-old out on the right touchline, collecting a long pass from Thibaut Courtois and displaying his directness with a dash to the Chelsea penalty box only ended by a muscular intervention from Kalidou Koulibably.

In Clip 2 we see Rodrygo's clever movement, first in the space between the lines and then behind the Chelsea defence as he plays the ball back to Kroos and spins behind substitute Marc Cucurella to race on to the return pass in a break which ends with a red-card challenge from Chilwell.

The next player in the spotlight is Vinícius Júnior. One interesting feature of his game is the way he finds positions out wide to 'rest' and in the first clip of the video above we see him in such a position up on halfway, ready and waiting to spring into action when Madrid regain possession.

This is precisely what happens next as he drops to collect the pass from Benzema and then takes on Reece James in a race down the left, eventually beating the Chelsea wing-back – no small feat – en route to the byline, from where he cuts the ball back to set up a shooting chance for Modrić.

The match observer described him as a "joy to watch" and praised his "consistency, physical power, and directness in his play". The data supports that view. Of all the players in action across the four quarter-final first legs, Vinícius Júnior ranked second for ball carries of ten metres or more with nine – his team-mate Valverde was first with 11. He was also joint-second for carries after a 1v1 (six) and third for take-ons (eight).

Speaking after Wednesday's contest, the player himself said "there were lots of spaces for us to push into" and the second clip above underlines his ability to run with the ball as he collects Camavinga's pass on halfway and has only one thought on his mind as he sets off on a run that takes him into the Chelsea penalty box where he beats Fofana on the outside to create a shooting opportunity. In the end only a goal-line clearance thwarts him.

Another feature which caught the eye on Wednesday was the work of Carvajal and Camavinga, the two Madrid full-backs. They took up positions inside of Rodrygo and Vinícius Júnior and, to quote the match observer, "became the free players capable of executing forward passes".

The first clip offers an example as each moves into space in the inside-right/left corridor before Camavinga floats a ball through for Benzema. The second clip offers another example of Camavinga's vision with another attempted through-pass to Benzema. As for the final clip, this highlights the role of Carvajal in the opening goal: he steps into space inside once more, receiving the ball from Kroos and then picking out Vinícius Júnior with his ball into the box.

Just to underline the right-back's attacking contribution, of all the players in quarter-final action this week, Carvajal made the most passes in the final third (29), one more than team-mate Modrić.

From a coaching perspective, the offensive work of the home full-backs had extra value in helping to neutralise Chelsea's wing-backs, forcing the visitors into a flat back five and thereby opening up areas in the midfield.

Coaches' assessments

Carlo Ancelotti, Real Madrid coach: "We started with only two at the back with [Éder] Militão, [David] Alaba and Kroos [in front] and they needed more help. The full-backs Camavinga and Carvajal, who'd pushed a lot at the start, had to stay a bit more inside.

"Carvajal always plays well in big games. Lots of the pressure which we applied came from the right side of our team and that paid off. In these type of matches, you can always count on Dani."

Frank Lampard, Chelsea coach: "The disappointing thing is to give away a set piece from switching off. I don't think with ten men they carved us open – that was due to the spirit.

"There's a little bit of a lack of belief. Maybe we're a bit short on that at the minute – there were some opportunities in possession to use the size of the pitch a bit more and be more aggressive on the sides of the pitch – maybe things we can do more next week."