Benfica faced Atlético Madrid in the second match of the UEFA Champions League’s ‘league phase’ — and came out victorious.
Beating Atlético Madrid 4-0, even though the game took place at the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, not only means that Benfica won three points in the standings but also highlights the fact that Benfica is becoming very powerful this season and is capable of beating top teams thanks to their balanced defensive and attacking phases and the current excellent form of most of their players.
After winning against Red Star Belgrade in their first away match of the campaign, Benfica now holds the second spot in the standings—alongside Bayer Leverkusen and Brest—if we consider the goal difference.
This means that Benfica have done precisely what was needed of them up to now.
However, they still have to face Barcelona at home, Juventus away, Bayern Munich away, Feyenoord at home, Monaco away, and Bologna at home.
Benfica will have to maintain the same standard of performance in these coming challenges.
This confirms the importance of winning their first two games in order to prepare calmly and confidently for the rest of the games.
On the other hand, Atlético Madrid suffered a disappointing loss that can impact the team mentally in the long run.
Losing 4-0 is too heavy to grasp, and the team should consider their errors and work on fixing them as soon as possible to make up for this heavy loss, both to regain their confidence in their abilities and to regain the fans’ belief.
Moreover, it will be vital for them to win their upcoming Champions League match mainly because they lost three crucial points in the standings, which dropped them to the 23rd spot (qualifying for the knockout phase play-offs).
After winning against RB Leipzig at home and losing against Benfica away, Atlético Madrid will have to face PSG away, Bayer Leverkusen at home, Lille at home, Red Bull Salzburg away, Slovan Bratislava at home and Sparta Prague away.
Therefore, it will be crucial for Atlético Madrid to fix what is needed to try and win most of the upcoming games and aim to qualify automatically for the knockout phase instead of having to pass through the play-offs.
In this tactical analysis article, we will focus on Benfica’s excellent attacking form and how they broke Atlético Madrid’s compact defensive line.
The analysis will also explore Atlético Madrid’s defensive tactics to highlight what went wrong and how they can improve their overall performance and avoid repeating the same errors.
Atlético Madrid Vs Benfica Lineups
Bruno Lage started the match using the 4-3-3 formation with Anatoliy Trubin as a goalkeeper, Alexander Bah, Tomás Araújo, Nicolás Otamendi and Álvaro Carreras in defence, Florentino Luís as a defensive midfielder, Orkun Kökçü and Fredrik Aursnes as central midfielders, Ángel Di María and Kerem Aktürkoğlu as wingers while Vangelis Pavlidis was the team’s striker.
On the other side, Diego Simeone opted for the 5-4-1 formation as he preferred to secure the defence with two compact defensive lines using Jan Oblak as a goalkeeper, Marcos Llorente, Axel Witsel, José María Giménez, Reinildo Mandava and Samuel Lino in defence, Ángel Correa and Julián Álvarez as wingers, Rodrigo De Paul and Koke as central midfielders while Antoine Griezmann was the team’s false nine.
Benfica’s Convincing Performance
Their excellent start to the match helped Benfica perform at their best and score many goals.
They immediately pressed high on Atlético Madrid’s defence and forced them into mistakes.
Benfica’s players looked more confident and eager to get the ball from the off.
They used very quick yet accurate passes between the lines and even inside the box at times.
That allowed Benfica to believe more in their ability to score early in the game, as they noticed that Atlético Madrid’s defence was penetrable.
The first Benfica goal was scored mainly thanks to Aursens’ excellent vision and assist that broke Atlético Madrid’s defensive line and allowed Aktürkoğlu to be in a one-on-one situation with Oblak.
Then, Aktürkoğlu reacted perfectly to that key pass and was able to score a beautiful goal with just a control and a shot on goal despite Oblak’s disturbance.
With such a goal, Benfica have confirmed that they have a powerful left winger who will certainly be useful not just in the Primeira Liga but also in the UEFA Champions League.
He has the talent and personality needed to consistently put on excellent performances.
Moreover, Benfica worked a lot from the right wing, with Di María being very active and representing a lot of danger whenever he cut inside or moved to the left wing at times.
This means that Benfica relied on both wings to create danger, either by the wingers themselves when they got inside the box or by serving Pavlidis, who was often active inside the box and dealt well with the passes he received even though he did not have much luck in some situations.
The following example highlights Di María’s excellent agility, ball protection and dribbling abilities as he cut inside from the right wing and spotted the right time to provide a key pass to Pavlidis in a 2v2 situation.
The latter was able to get the ball but did not have much time to coordinate his body well and orient the ball towards the goal, which led to missing a golden opportunity to add a second goal at that delicate time (at the end of the first half).
After scoring their second goal, Benfica decided to rely on counterattacks a bit further, using their pacy wingers to reach the box quickly and try to punish Atlético Madrid for advancing to score.
Di María was at the heart of these actions as he often received defensive clearances and advanced with the ball to the box.
Nevertheless, he could have been a bit more decisive on some of these occasions, especially the following one, when he ran with the ball to the box and decided to shoot but did not curve the ball away from the goalkeeper, knowing that he also had two suitable passing solutions on his left.
Despite these misses, Benfica were able to add a third and a fourth goal mainly thanks to well-prepared corners and to obliging Atlético Madrid into committing individual and sometimes collective mistakes.
Bah scored a header from a corner, exploiting Atlético Madrid’s defence’s marking issues in this match.
Kökçü scored a penalty, exploiting Reinildo’s mistake and the gaps created inside Atlético Madrid’s box following Amdouni’s penetration.
Atlético Madrid’s Poor Defensive Performance
With only four shots, none of them on target, Atlético Madrid’s attacking performance in this match was disappointing.
They were not even able to score a goal or threaten Benfica’s defence seriously.
With Griezmann tightly marked and lacking the space needed to get the ball and contribute effectively in the playmaking process the way he likes, the team did not have concrete references to rely on when attacking and was obliged to circulate the ball without finding real solutions against a well-organised and compact defence.
Moreover, playing someone like Julián Alvarez on the left is not really the best choice to get 100% from the Argentinian as he could have brought a lot more danger if he had been used as a second striker alongside Griezmann, for instance, or even as a central striker.
The lack of attacking ideas was evident in this match as Atlético Madrid looked incapable of disturbing Benfica upfront.
Moreover, this was one of the team’s most disappointing defensive performances, as Atlético has always been known for its excellent defensive performances, even against more powerful teams.
This time, however, many errors were committed, and they cost the team a heavy loss that could impact their Champions League journey.
To begin with, the vast space left for Aktürkoğlu between Witsel and Llorente is unjustifiable and suggests that there is a lack of communication between the players on such occasions.
More importantly, the gap left for Aktürkoğlu also means that there is a lack of awareness regarding the defensive movements, not just of Witsel but of the defensive line as a unit.
Moreover, committing two fouls inside the box in a single match also highlights the confusion within Atlético Madrid’s defensive line.
It shows that marking was not efficient at all during this game.
Therefore, Simeone will need to do a lot of work to fix the individual marking issues and, more importantly, address the collective defensive line confusion created by almost every dangerous attack.
Moreover, conceding counterattacks with just two players retreating from the middle of the pitch as a result of the very high defensive block during the team’s attack was a big risk taken by Simeone that could have cost the team one or two additional goals.
Conclusion
Benfica won a very important match in their journey towards qualification to the knockout phase while performing convincingly.
On the other hand, Atlético Madrid will have to work very hard to improve their defensive and attacking performances.
They have not been able to disturb Benfica at all in this match and have suffered a lot in the defensive aspect, too.
To achieve this, a lot of organisational work will have to be undertaken, especially regarding the collective defensive movements.
That being said, Atlético Madrid has the players needed to perform better than they did against Benfica and should take this match as a starting point in the improvement process.
Comments