In the Zone: Performance analysis of Atlético de Madrid's back-from-the-brink win against Inter

Atlético de Madrid ended the UEFA Champions League hopes of last season's runners-up Inter with a penalty shootout victory at the Estadio Metropolitano on Wednesday night.

In this article brought to you by FedEx, UEFA technical observer Aitor Karanka, working together with the UEFA analysis unit, highlights several aspects of a dramatic round of 16 second-leg contest – from the rotations of an Inter side which arrived in Madrid on a 13-match winning streak to the midfield nous of home captain Koke.

Team formations

Features

Inter's ball circulation and player rotations

Inter completed more passes (688) than any other team in Champions League action this week, and they had spells at the Metropolitano when they kept the ball by moving it backwards and sideways, facilitated by some clever rotational play from their midfield players.

"The players starting the build-up are often the midfielders," said Karanka, who cited the way Inter's Türkiye midfielder, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, regularly dropped deep between the centre-backs.

The video above displays two sequences from when the game was goalless and Inter, with their first-leg lead, were happy to slow the tempo when the opportunity arose. As the first sequence unfolds, we see Hakan Çalhanoğlu joining the three centre-backs in a back four – with right wing-back Denzel Dumfries taking up a position high on the right flank. With the Inter midfield trio rotating, Henrikh Mkhitaryan then steps back and makes himself available, and he responds to pressure by playing the ball back to his goalkeeper, Yann Sommer.

This ability to switch positions and escape pressure with composed passing was a feature of Inter's performance, and clip two offers another example. Again, there is no sense of panic as the Nerazzurri circulate the ball, and Mkhitaryan's movement is worth noting as he draws Atlético players towards the halfway line to help Hakan Çalhanoğlu find space further back.

The work of Nicolò Barella warrants a mention too. Like Hakan Çalhanoğlu, he was always ready to step back, and here we see him rotating with Alessandro Bastoni and ending up as the deepest Inter player as the sequence comes to an end.

Of all the players on the pitch, Hakan Çalhanoğlu ended the night with the most touches (154) and passes completed (122). As a team, meanwhile, Inter had marginally more of the ball than Atlético (52.7%), but coach Simone Inzaghi lamented that after an "even" first half, his side lost their way a little following the restart.

"In the second half, we should have done better," he said, citing the "energy and confidence" that their hosts – players and supporters – were able to draw from their quick 35th-minute equaliser, two minutes after falling behind. There were missed chances to rue too for an Inter team which had 15 shots but only five on target (and ended with an xG of 1.55, lower than their hosts' 2.47).

Koke keeps it simple – but effective

Atlético came into this match on a run of two wins, two draws and five defeats in their previous nine matches. Yet, as Koke noted afterwards, "When we all show this attitude, this intensity, this concentration, we are a completely different team." The experienced captain described the introduction of Memphis Depay – scorer of the winner on the night – as a turning point, but his own performance also merits a closer look. It was an impressive display from the 32-year-old, a veteran of Atlético's runs to the final in 2014 and 2016.

The video above shows his ability to take up good positions and make the right decisions with the ball as well. In the first clip, we see how he gets into space behind the two Inter forwards; as the action pauses, he is visibly scanning the pitch, and with that awareness of what is happening around him, he is then able to progress the ball.

In the second clip, Koke cleverly adjusts his positioning so that Inter forward Marcus Thuram cannot block the passing lane. The Atleti skipper duly receives the pass from the back and is able to open up and play forward once more.

The third clip again illustrates his movement, as well as his capacity to get into space to receive the ball and then help to advance it – this time in an action that brings the throw-in which led to the equaliser from Antoine Griezmann.

"He showed once again how intelligent he is when building up from the back, trying to find the right spaces to get the ball," said Karanka. Overall, Koke had the most touches of any Atlético player (116), and no touch was more significant than his assist for the Depay goal which brought the home side level on aggregate. This is shown in the fourth clip and it underlines his ability to make things happen in the final third, the veteran getting into position to ensure the angle of pass is just right for Depay.

"Look at how much quality he showed to make the pass in that situation," added Karanka. "It looks easy, but there were a lot of players outside the box there and to find the space to make the pass was not easy."

Atlético's crossing game

"Atlético were always looking to the wings," said Karanka of the opening stages of this second-leg encounter. Diego Simeone's men had ten crosses inside the first 20 minutes alone and ended the match with 39 in all. Yet it is worth considering the type of crosses they produced given that, of those 39, only seven were completed (Inter had a higher success rate with five completed from a total of 16).

The first clip shows Álvaro Morata getting his head to a centre from a deep position on the left by Mario Hermoso just before the half-hour. In truth, Simeone's men looked more dangerous in the second period, when they crossed the ball from positions closer to goal – as seen in clips two and three. In the second clip, Marcos Llorente crosses for Griezmann from the edge of the box, while in the third Rodrigo Riquelme gets into the box on the left and his low driven cross brings an extra-time opportunity for Depay.

Last season's Champions League technical report highlighted that roughly one-quarter of crosses (24%) came from that parcel of pitch inside the width of the penalty box, be it inside or outside the box itself (see page 55 here).

Karanka, a centre-back himself in his playing days, reflected that crosses from such areas – affording defenders less reaction time – typically posed a greater challenge. "If the ball is coming from closer, it is a different way of defending than when it's from outside the box," he said. "When Atlético got into those other positions for crosses, Inter had problems defending them."