Real Madrid executing their plan of kick our players in to the ground (knowing they’ll be allowed to do it) and hit us on the break.
Rudiger getting away with regularly rugby tackling Haaland and yet another American football block on one of our players. Thankfully Ilkay seems to be ok this time.
Jack needs to calm down and not react, as Carvajal is going to be doing everything he can to get him sent off and this ref looks like he wants to make it happen.
We haven’t played badly, really, aside from a few poor decisions in possession, but we have looked more passive than expected, at times seemingly hesitant to pass forward when it is on, often passing sideways or back.
I am not sure if that was meant to be a tactic to get their players to come out whilst we are in possession, but it isn’t working. They aren’t biting. And it just allows them to keep their shape and look to intercept for the counter, which is largely what lead to their goal.
I am not entirely sure John’s role in this game is helpful, either. Especially if he makes the runs toward their box and then just passes backwards when he gets close to a RM player.
Not sure what we can do to get Haaland more in to the game given they’re doubling/tripling up on him whenever we get the ball near the box, which doesn’t even open up space for others, because neither Jack nor Bernardo, or Ilkay have really done much to attack the space created. Again, I am unsure if that was a tactic to just try to get to the half 0-0 and tire out the RM players, but it obviously didn’t go to plan.
I have confidence Pep will make the necessary tweaks to our tactics and will be play a bit more aggressively in the second half. The break came at a good time because we had lost the momentum and needed to regroup.
I reckon we could get an equaliser in the second half to take back to Manchester and I am still confident we would get the job done at home.
