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

Real Madrid advanced to their third successive UEFA Champions League semi-final on Tuesday with a 2-0 victory at Stamford Bridge in the second leg of their quarter-final.

In this article brought to you by FedEx, the UEFA Technical Observers' Panel assess the main tactical factors behind the holders' victory over Chelsea – their sixth in a row against English clubs in the competition.

Goals

0-1: Rodrygo (58)

The Brazilian's electric pace took him past the lunging Trevoh Chalobah on the right wing and he raced on into the box before cutting the ball across the face of goal. Although Karim Benzema could not connect, Vinícius Júnior, beyond the far post, had the presence of mind to pick out his compatriot who took one touch before finding the net for the fourth time in this European campaign. For Vinícius Júnior, it was his 21st goal involvement (11th assist) in his last 21 Champions League games.

0-2: Rodrygo (80)

Substitute Antonio Rüdiger's ball from inside the Madrid half found Vinícius Júnior approaching the penalty box from the left wing and he laid it inside towards Federico Valverde, who skipped away from Mykhailo Mudryk, then ghosted past Thiago Silva before teeing up Rodrygo for a tap-in. It was Rodrygo's second double in a Champions League knockout game, following his two strikes against another English side, Manchester City, in last season's semi-finals.

Player of the Match: Federico Valverde

The high-energy Uruguayan caught the eye of the UEFA match observer who said: "He provided excellent balance to Real Madrid's midfield and was composed in possession, did an excellent job defensively and gave an outstanding assist for the second goal."

Team formations

Chelsea

How Chelsea lined up

Frank Lampard set the hosts up in a 3-4-2-1 with the energetic Conor Gallagher (23) coming in for only his second Champions League start in an attacking role on the left and Kai Havertz (29) restored to the centre-forward position, though he tended to drift wide and come low to receive. The midfield and forward line was fluid and, as the Features section will elaborate, N'Golo Kanté (7) had a significant role supporting wing-back Reece James (24) on the right. On the other side, Marc Cucurella (32) filled the wing-back slot vacated by the suspended Ben Chilwell. Out of possession, Chelsea controlled the half-spaces better than in the first leg, with a shape that morphed between a 4-4-1-1 and a 4-2-3-1.

Real Madrid

How Real Madrid lined up

Madrid's shape was a 4-3-3 both in and out of possession and they were unchanged from the first leg with centre-forward Benzema (9) making his 150th Champions League appearance. One notable adjustment made in the second half was Carlo Ancelotti's switching of the hard-running Valverde (15) to the left of the midfield to provide more defensive stability on that side after Eduardo Camavinga (12) had struggled at times with the duo of James and Kanté in the first half (see section 4 of the Features).

Features

The first video clip is a reminder of a key tactical feature of Madrid's first-leg success – namely how they exploited the spaces either side of Chelsea's narrow midfield three, spaces which full-backs Camavinga and Dani Carvajal stepped into in order to play forward passes – as highlighted by the fact Carvajal played the most passes in the final third (29) of any player last week, including this ball which led to Benzema scoring the first goal.

Here we see how Chelsea responded to that tactical question on Tuesday, taking on board the lesson of last week by blocking spaces centrally to prevent Madrid from progressing there.

The London side defended in a 4-2-3-1 with Enzo Fernández and Mateo Kovačić marking the zones occupied by Valverde and Luka Modrić and, ahead of them, Kanté monitoring Toni Kroos. On the right, James had the task of stepping up on Camavinga; on the left, we see Gallagher in place to jump on Éder Militão.

Hence this first clip where Madrid look to build from the back but find their options limited with Modrić closed down by Kovačić and playing a rare stray pass which is picked up by Gallagher.

In the second clip Chelsea again have the width of the pitch covered, with James and Gallagher ready to jump on Camavinga and Carvajal, as illustrated. And when Benzema does find Carvajal, the right-back comes inside to escape the pressure of Gallagher and overhits his attempted crossfield ball. By contrast with the first leg, he played six passes in the final third on Tuesday night.

The third clip reiterates the point about Chelsea's efforts to stop Madrid progressing – be it centrally or out wide – and in the end we see Militão attempt a long pass to Rodrygo instead.

For all of Chelsea's good work, they were facing opponents – and a coach – with so much know-how and the defending champions demonstrated their ability to find solutions in the way they responded to Chelsea's compact structure.

The first clip above illustrates the home side's shape, spelling out their compact distances from back to front (37.5m) and across the pitch (38.9m). Yet it also shows how Madrid responded by going around them, exploiting the blistering speed of Rodrygo out wide en route to opening the scoring.

The second example shows them go wide again to escape the blue net Chelsea have thrown across the centre of the field – a sequence that ends with Militão picking out Vinícius Júnior with a crossfield pass.

Madrid's composure warrants a mention too. Here is a team with the quality to keep on circulating the ball, rather than get frustrated. As if to underline the point, attentive TV viewers will have heard Ancelotti shout "Don't force it, don't force it" as his players worked the ball around the pitch in the build-up to the second goal.

Another feature to catch the eye of the UEFA analysis unit was the positioning of Chelsea midfielder Kanté and the problem this posed Madrid at times. Indeed, it was something Ancelotti himself spoke of after the match – a conundrum displayed in the two sequences in this video.

In the first clip we see Camavinga, the Madrid left-back, faced with the question of whether to move inside to control Kanté's zone or be wider in the event of a ball out to James. Eventually, James does get a cross in and Kanté spurns an excellent early opportunity.

Something similar happens in the second clip in which we see James highlighted all on his own on the right. For Camavinga the conundrum is again clear: does he keep close to Kanté in his zone or get across to James? By the time he does get over to James, the full-back has been able to size up and deliver a cross.

N'Golo Kanté's heat map from the game

The match observer described James as "often the best attacking outlet for Chelsea" and he produced more crosses from open play (seven) than any other player in quarter-final action this week. Four came in the first period and from the last of them, a low driven centre in added time, he set up arguably Chelsea's best opportunity for Cucurella, who was foiled by Thibaut Courtois.

Ancelotti said afterwards that his side had "suffered" owing to "the position of Kanté, who was centre-right". He explained that if Camavinga "was used to put pressure on Reece James on the left, we had difficulty to control the position of Kanté. In the second half I changed the position. I put Valverde on the left just to control the position and we were much better there."

For the record, the Londoners' total of 19 open-play crosses on Tuesday night was second only to Napoli's 32 this week – and more than double Madrid's total of eight. Chelsea also managed 19 shots, again second to Napoli (23), yet paid the price for not taking their chances and, like Napoli, suffered elimination.

Madrid's counterattacking capability comes under the spotlight in this next section which offers three examples of the quality of a side who can counter so well from both a low block and a mid-block as well as from set plays.

In the first sequence Los Blancos break from a low block and it is impressive to see how their talented footballers respond to the counter-pressure by their opponents, moving the ball on with such pace and precision.

First Fernández presses Modrić, who moves the ball on with an instant touch. Next Kroos has two blue shirts in his immediate vicinity but takes one touch then ushers the ball on. Next it is Vinícius Júnior who receives, with Wesley Fofana behind him; he collects and then spins past the centre-back, pinging the ball forward to Modrić on the other side of the halfway line. As the video shows, Madrid have now taken six Chelsea players out of the game and have a 3v3.

For the UEFA analysis unit, this was a noteworthy example for the fact this counterattack is not just a quick pass forward; rather we see how Madrid evade Chelsea's counter-pressure by finding the right passing angles with world-class awareness and execution of their passes.

As the video progresses, we see a more direct counter following a Chelsea corner, notable for the speed of the attack and also the movement of Benzema and Vinícius Júnior. The latter races diagonally from the left towards the front post and in the process opens up space for Benzema to attack the back post.

Just to accentuate Vinícius Júnior's threat, this week he ranked joint-second with Milan's Ismaël Bennacer for ball carries, following a 1v1 or take-on, with seven; only Napoli's Kvicha Kvaratskhelia managed more with 12.

Coaches' assessments

Frank Lampard, Chelsea caretaker manager: "We got a lot of numbers in the box and were in loads of crossing positions. If you can take those chances, and the tie goes to 2-1 at any point, you really would have felt the crowd turn. We were moving the ball really well and giving them a lot of problems down the sides of the pitch, which we wanted to.

"It's the first game since I've been back where I feel that we've talked about things before the game and really implemented them. That's a must for us in the remainder of the season. I think the midfield block worked really well."

Carlo Ancelotti, Real Madrid coach: "The big Courtois save [from Cucurella] was very important. We didn't want them to go ahead. That could have been worrying. As the second half developed, we were stronger, we created space to open up quality transitions.

"Just before he scored, I'd been talking to Rodrygo about a defensive problem because they were pushing up and taking big risks at the back often leaving three v three."