UCL matches are back, a week that European football fans have been eagerly awaiting. In this R16 match, Real Madrid is required to travel to Leipzig, Germany. Both teams are used to playing attack, very attractive with their own schemes, there is no reason not to take part in the match.
Entertaining Real Madrid in front of the public, of course RB Leipzig didn’t want to disappoint, they came out with the best squad available. Likewise, Real Madrid, one of the champions of this tournament, also brought out its best players available, fans have high hopes of being treated to entertaining football.
How the match went? The match started according to fans’ expectations, both teams immediately played equally aggressively, playing a high tempo game of European football, there was no reason not to score first.
Interestingly, it wasn’t just the game, but opportunities were also obtained by both teams, even though they weren’t open opportunities with high goal conversions. Unfortunately, positive play like this didn’t last long, by the 20th minute the players had started to lower the tempo, playing with more ball control.
There was no superiority until this minute, both teams were still playing equally well in defending the ball and pressing, there were not many opportunities created, but there were a lot of fouls. Although quite a lot of violations occurred until the second half break, the majority of the violations were not violations that could damage the match and cause chaos, just professional violations.
All this is enough to show, even though the tempo is no longer the same, the intention to win from both of them is no different. The second break started with a surprise attack from Leipzig, the intention to score quickly was visible there. Unfortunately, El Real’s defense was much better prepared than the attack scheme they had planned. No surprises there.
In the 48th minute, El Real through Brahim Diaz took the ball from the right side, past several Leipzig players running into the penalty box, then took a short kick which went hard into the goal through the far post, suddenly Madrid took the lead (0-1) .
After that, Leipzig tried hard to recover, they put a lot of effort there to score a goal, but it seemed like everything they did was not enough. Real Madrid always has a way to defend the goal, especially Lunin, who once again had his best game this season, behind it all there were also fast counter attacks through Vini, Rodrygo and Brahim who were equally terrifying.
The longer the match went on, Leipzig looked increasingly tormented by the existing situation, all the changes had been made, even changing the formation, it could not be denied that the home team was starting to lose direction.
Towards the end of the match, El Real controlled the ball more and more calmly. All that resistance seemed to have faded away now. In fact, in the final minute, Joselu was almost able to double the lead, unfortunately the final finish was too far from the goal in sight, this golden opportunity marked the end of a match.
A very different match in the first and second half, the gap in quality between the two teams was clearly visible. This match could be said to be quite disappointing, considering that the Leipzig we know are not like this, they are still not clinical enough, but they have never given up like this before.
Somehow the values seem to have been lost there. Moreover, the moment Brahim was in pain and fell in the middle of the field, these players actually took the ball and forced the game to continue, trying to score a goal.
Luckily still a great save by Lunin stopped it all. Apart from that, there is a clear lack of sportsmanship there, how can players play at such a low level.
On the other hand, el Real played superbly in the match, completely controlling everything that happened in it. Even though it could be said that we are less clinical in processing opportunities, we must be aware that days like this will definitely happen in the future. Credit to Andriy Lunin, this player deserves more appreciation.
Teams on the field
RB Leipzig (5-3-2): Gulcsi; Henrichs, Orban, Klostermann, Simakan, Raum; Dani Olmo, Schlager, Xavi Simons; Openda, Sesko.
Real Madrid (4-3-1-2): Lunin; Carvajal, Nacho, Tchouameni, Mendy; Fede Valverde, Kroos, Camavinga; Brahim Daz; Vinicius, Rodrygo.
ASL
