Champions League performance insights: How Milan's bravery beat Real Madrid

"Milan were impressive in their build-up and in possession," said UEFA match observer Ole Gunnar Solskjær as he assessed an eye-catching success for Paulo Fonseca's side at Real Madrid on Tuesday.

The manner in which the Italian visitors controlled the middle of the pitch and threatened down their left side in particular warrants a closer look and here UEFA's analysis unit shine a light on how the Rossoneri outperformed the defending champions on their way to a deserved 3-1 victory.

To begin with the first graphic above, this shows Milan's average shape in possession. Without the ball they set up in a 5-4-1; with the ball their shape shifted to a 4-2-4 or even 2-4-4 at times.

This demanded "courage" as Fonseca said afterwards and, as the graphic shows, Theo Hernández would push into Madrid territory from his full-back position on the left with Emerson on the right staying deeper. Meanwhile, with Rafael Leão and Yunus Musah providing attacking width, Christian Pulišić and Álvaro Morata occupied spaces centrally, often wandering between the midfield and back line of Madrid.

These points are all illustrated in this first video, which shows the lead-up to the corner which brought Milan's first goal. There is a run in behind from Tijjani Reijnders – reflecting Solskjær's observation that whenever they won the ball they were "immediately thinking of getting forward" – yet the key is Morata dropping deep and getting on the ball as the wingers stay high and wide. As the clip shows, once Morata gets on the ball facing forward, Rafael Leão sets off on the run in behind.

This breakdown of the Milan players who received the ball most between the lines highlights the influence of Pulišić (seven) and Morata (four), who were crucial to their controlling the game centrally. Reijnders (six) and Youssouf Fofana (three) also worked well behind the Madrid front two.

As this third graphic underlines, Rafael Leão was pivotal for his dynamic runs in behind – 18 in all. If Milan were able to dominate centrally, he was prominent for exploring spaces behind from his position on the left.

The key features of Milan's display are evident again in this second video. We see Morata working deep and the movement of Pulišić between the lines, with the latter supporting the Spanish forward as they work the ball out to the right. Also visible are Milan's numerical superiority and control of the central spaces, where Fofana is unchallenged as he picks out Rafael Leão for another run at the Madrid defence.

Milan's left-sided threat was all the greater for the supporting runs of Hernández and the impact of that pair is emphasised by the final graphic below, which shows that 49% of their passes into the final third went to Lane 1 on the left. Three of those passes led to a chance being created, with Solskjær affirming: "The left-hand side was dominant with the most chances created from there."

The final word can go to Fonseca himself, who highlighted the bravery it took for his side to play this way at the Santiago Bernabéu. The Milan coach said: "The fact is that we could take advantage of Madrid's mistakes with both the positional play and our great attitude. It needs bravery to play like we did but we really understood the moments of the match, such as when to accelerate and when to push."