Third successive year Bayern and Pep Guardiola are stopped in semi-finals of Champions League, and yet again, it was the La Liga team how knocked them out of competition. Although Bayern played one of the best 45 minutes in Guardiola tenure (thanks to tactical changes from first match), Muller missed penalty, bad decision from Jerome Boateng which resulted in counterrattack and of course, Atletico defensive strategy costs Pep Guardiola and stopped him to reach his first Champions League final as Bayern coach.
Lineups:
After dropped to the bench in first game, Thomas Muller takes his place in starting 11 for second leg. Also, Franck Ribery jumped in for starting eleven at expense of Kingsley Coman, and thanks to partnership with David Alaba, played one of the best game in Bayern since Guardiola appointment. Also, Jerome Boateng makes his comeback from injury, making his first start in months joining Javi Martinez in defensive line. Alongside Koman, Thiago Alcantara also dropped to the bench for second leg. Simeone decided not to change much his starting 11 from first leg, it is Godin comeback that was only change from the first match, and thanks to that, Savic takes his place to the bench:
Bayern starting 11:
We can see here how Bayern invited Atletico to press on the right so Boateng can be free in opposite half space. We can also see Gabi, who is trying to press Vidal and close triangular pressing structure, but he was late, because he was too depp in the first place. Alonso great positioning enables him good distance from Torres, so when Vidal played ball to him:
And another example of overloading right side of the pitch before exploiting free left side.
As i mentioned earlier, Bayern was much more centrally focused in this game, and main change was because of Costa and Ribery/Alaba central occupation. Douglas Costa, who was man marked in first game by Filipe Luis was played much more centrally in this game trying to find spaces to turn his face to opponent goal and exploit his dribbling skills. Also, Ribery and Alaba rotated constantly on the right side where most of the time one of them was in halfspace, and other occupying wide ares to strecth the field and give Bayern the width. One great example of Bayern positioning in possession:
This was often Bayern structure during the possesion phase. Martinez, Alonso and Boateng acting often as a back 3 with aim to free Boateng and give him time and space on the ball, Vidal and Alaba occupying centre and halfspace respectively, Costa in right halfspace, Lahm and Ribery keeping the width (like i sad before, Ribery and Alaba rotate positions often during the game), and Lewandowski and Muller occupying Atletico back line and looking for a space behind their back. Also, we need to mention Muller role, who often drops between the lines to create superiority in midfield and break the Atletico midfield structure.
Here we can see how Bayern circulated the ball from Martinez to Boateng and pull out Saul and Gabi from their positions in attempt to create space in midfield for progression (you can see how Saul is late to position himself near Augusto to secure horizontal compactness) and here Bayern have inverted triangle in midfield (Vidal, Alaba, Costa) in comparison to Atletico one (Gabi, Augusto, Saul) so theoretically Vidal can have diagonal options here to Alaba and Costa because Saul and Gabi are pulled out. But, good reaction from Griezmann and Koke who covers Saul and Gabi here disable that. Also, good position from Torres and Gabi blocks passing lane to Vidal, but, this back 3 and Atletico passive defence give Boateng time and space to play long ball behind Atletico defence to Muller who lays off to Lewandowski and Bayern creates great chance here.
Like i sad before, Bayern put more bodies into midfield, and Costa/Lahm rotation was particularly most important. In contrast to first leg, in this match Costa played more centrally, looking to escape from Luis man marking and looking for a ball into rigght halfspace to try to get space and time onto the ball and create numerical superiority in midfield.
We can see here how Bayern tried to rotate to free space for Costa. Lahm pulls Koke with him and Vidal goes wide to pull out Augusto from position. Costa drops in behind Augusto back to try to get the ball between the lines and turns his face towards goal. We can see Muller here how he tries to goes behind Gabi to secure vertical pass from Costa or maybe one-two with Brazilian. Lewandowski is here occupying Luis and Godin to try free up Muller between the lines.
But we need to admit that Atletico have good cover here, Gabi drops diagonally behind Augusto and Griezmann is set to cover Gabi and also close down eventual Costa access to central spaces with the ball. Costa here receives the ball, get past Gabi but stopped from Griezmann and Saul who is off the screen here.
Here we cann see similar situation and how Muller and Ribery forced Saul and Gabi to drop deep and leave spaces for Alaba and Vidal. Lahm again pulls Koke wide with the ball and Costa drops off behind Koke back. Costa recevies the ball and tries and eventually succed to get into midfield with the ball and eliminate Atletico midfield line with diagonal dribbling. Muller pulls Gabi with him and open space up for Costa. Ribery with his central positioning pulls Saul with him, and here, Vidal and Alaba have space and time with the ball if they received it, so here, Bayern can pretty easily switch side, which is usualy pretty difficult against Atletico. Bayern here switch side through Costa and Vidal, but Alaba poor cross disabled Bayern from creating a chance.
So, it is clear how Pep adapted from first leg and change role of his wingers, especially Costa. It was common opinion that Guardiola in some moments were extreme in forcing isolations on the wings and focusing Bayern play on those positions. For example, this is the picture from the first leg:
We can see how Bayern wings are positioned near the touchline, looking for isolation. But, this man marking from Juanfran and Luis and good cover of spaces around Atletico full backs cuts off time and space on the ball for Costa and Coman and close down space around the ball for Costa and Coman to progress. Good position from Koke and Saul, who both have duties to keep horizontal compacntess and protect halfspaces enable Juanfran and Luis to break off from their centre backs and stick to the Bayern wings. Because of that, Guardiola change position of his wings in second leg.
Like i sad, Alaba often occupied left halfspace and rotated with Ribery sometimes, and this is most common positioning in Bayern possession phase (Lewandowski roamed and looked for empty spaces, this was very clever positioning behind Luis who pressed Lahm and leave his full back position). Alonso was often between centre backs and sometimes position himself in center, to support Vidal who had the ball in right halfspace. Alaba in left halfspace, and Muller and Costa between the lines tried to create superiority and forced Gabi and Augusto to position themselves deep soVidal can have time and space on the ball.
Here we can see situation where Alaba is wide and Saul have focus on him. Ribery drops off into halfspace behind Saul and Boateng plays his well known pass to Ribery which left Saul out. Gabi is late here and makes dirty tackle which didnt result in yellow card only because it was start of the game.
We mentioned Atletico passivity and vertical uncompacntess between the strikers and midfield line. This often caused, like i mentioned earlier, easy Bayern overload in first phase and easy elimination of Atletico strikers and breaking out first line of pressing. We saw two examples when Gabi was late in pressing, and here is another one, this time from Augusto:
We can cleary see the situation here. Martinez have the ball and Atletico tries to cut off his options. Saul is blocking passing lane to Lahm, Griezmann is blocking passing lane to Boateng and Torres is marking Alonso. But, Vidal offers himself diagonally and through triangle Martinez-Vidal-Lahm Bayern escapes from this potential danger situation because Augusto stayed too deep and Vidal was free to receive and play the ball.
It was rare situation when Atletico midfielders offer support to their strikers high on the pitch. I caught one situation when they did it, and in that situation they forced Bayern to go long:
Here we can see how Atletico have good connections high up the pitch and cuts off Bayern options. Boateng have the ball and was pressed from Torres who also blocks passing lane to Alonso. Griezmann cover him and sprinting towards Alonso. Gabi and Saul have good covering here, blocking vertical and diagonal pass respectively. Also, with this connections, Atletico closed down near ball space very good. Either Boateng drives the ball forward or plays the pass to Alaba, near ball space is closed very good and Bayern have no option except playing long ball. Here, Boateng is forced to go long and Atletico eventually won the second ball (what a surprise, eh?). But, sadly for Atletico, this situations was rare during the first half and they often let the Bayern go out from the first phase pretty easily.
Atletico in deeper areas defensively
Although they struggle defensively high up the pitch, they still managed to keep good compacntess and control space in their own half. With good covering and moving towards the ball, Atletico managed to create overloads near the ball especialy in wide areas. When they were in deep defensive block near their own goal, Griezmann and Torres have important role of preventing Bayern to easily and quickly transfer the ball to opposite side of the pitch.
Here, Alaba receives the ball and was pressed by Saul, meaning that Alaba don't have space on the ball.Gabi keep horizontal compactness covering Saul horizontally. Augusto drops diagonally to cover Gabi and control space between Gabi and Gimenez who, with Juanfran, controls Ribery. So here, Atletico have 5v3 situation and can easily recover possession or force Bayern to go back.
Here we can see how Atletico thanks to good horizontal and vertical compactness prevents Bayern from playing either vertical or horizontal pass. Koke, Augusto and Gabi keeps good horizontal compactness and thanks to Luis and Godin behind them have good geometry and Martinez can not play vertical pass. Also, Griezmann and Torres, with Augusto, create good vertical structure and Martinez can not play either to Vidal or Alonso.
Here we can see how Atletico close the central columns and force Bayern wide. Augusto press the ball carrier, Vidal, and Gabi drops diagonally to cover him and also control Muller and Lewandowski in triangle with two centre backs. Saul and Koke, two wingers controls the halfspaces and force pass from Vidal into wide positions while Griezmann blocks passing lane to Costa.
Good compactness from Atletico forces Vidal to play backwards pass.
We can see here common defensive shape on the side where the ball is. Koke and Gabi controls the halfspace and block passing lane to Alaba. Because of that, Juanfran can breaks off from Gimenez and instead of worrying about horizontal compactness, he can stick to Ribery and give him no time or space on the ball. Augusto smartly drops near Gabi to cover him while Griezmann is blocks with his body pass to Vidal so Bayern can not progress in this situation and Boateng have no clear pass option.
Atletico change of formation (which i will talk later) and again, creating overload on a ball side and closing down the triangle Alaba-Ribery-Muller.
Atletico defensive changes
During the course of the game, Simeone tend to change formation defensively from 442 to 4141 to put more bodies into midfield because of Bayern structure in possession and also effectively cover their 8's in order to better control spaces between the lines.
One of the main reasons for formation change. Vidal pulls out wide to receive the ball and Costa offers himself diagonally. Augusto presses Costa and leaves space behind him unmarked and Gabi is late to cover. Muller recognizes situation very well and positions himself behind Augusto. Vidal plays great pass to Muller and Muller plays one touch pass to Lewandowski, great example of third man move. Also, this is great example of creating superiority over the pressing line of the opponent, one of the main principles in juego de posicion.
Augusto here covers Saul who pressed Martinez. Martinez played the ball to Lam and Saul immediately drops off to close down the diamond and close passing lane to Vidal. Because of that, Lahm is forced to play pass back and Bayern need to recirculate possession.
Again, Vidal is controlled in diamond, and although passing lane to him is relatively open, his eventual passing options are limited as he can not play the ball between the lines thanks to Saul and Koke position because they control that passing lane to Costa. Wingers keep horizontal compactness and controls the halfspaces. Juanfran unneceseraly sprints to Ribery and leaves Gimenez in 1v2 situation (great reaction from Guardiola) as Bayern tend to use this man marking on Ribery. Bayern creates pretty dangerous situation here which ends up in a corner.
Also, one more thing is worth to mention. In second half, Atletico tries to press Bayern high up the pitch in various situations and disable their construction phase in possession.
Here is one example of that. Martinez with the ball have no passing option except potential pass to Neuer. Koke pressed him and blocked passing lane to Lahm, and Carrasco and Gabi are marking Alonso and Vidal respectively.
Bayern changed side here through Boateng and Alonso, who played it to Martinez. Torres marks Alonso, Koke agressively presses Martinez and tries to block vertical pass from him. Vidal offers as a diagonal option and pressing output, and Gabi here tries to disable that. So we can see how Atletico acted more agressively in defensive phase from the start of the second half.
Example of how Atletico midfield structure is positioned higher than in first half trying to prevent Bayern's build up. But, Torres did not position his body correctly here to block pass to Alonso and Bayern pretty easily gets out from this situation. But, main preference of this photo is to show higher positioning of Atletico midfield structure in defensive phase.
Lineups:
After dropped to the bench in first game, Thomas Muller takes his place in starting 11 for second leg. Also, Franck Ribery jumped in for starting eleven at expense of Kingsley Coman, and thanks to partnership with David Alaba, played one of the best game in Bayern since Guardiola appointment. Also, Jerome Boateng makes his comeback from injury, making his first start in months joining Javi Martinez in defensive line. Alongside Koman, Thiago Alcantara also dropped to the bench for second leg. Simeone decided not to change much his starting 11 from first leg, it is Godin comeback that was only change from the first match, and thanks to that, Savic takes his place to the bench:
Bayern starting 11:
Atletico starting 11:
Bayern in possession, changes for secong leg and Atletico defensive passivenes
In contrast to the first game, where Bayern avoided to play in centre of the pitch for most of the game, in this match they put more bodies in three central columnes of the pitch (centre and halfspaces) which secured them numerical superiority, better defensive transition where Atletico didn't have numerical advantage upon regaining possession, and also forcing Atletico midfielders to stay deeper and secure passes throug the middle, which often meant that they could not help Griezmann and Torres upfront and because of that, Bayern could easily overload Atletico strikers and make progress into next phase of attack.
We can see here how Bayern easily overloaded Griezmann and Torres with a diamond making a 4v2 situation. They invite Atletico strikers to press on the left and then Vidal plays great pass to right halfspace for Javi Martinez who is free and can progress with the ball and drive into midfield.
Also, we often saw scenario where Bayern invited Atletico strikers to press on the right, so Bayern can free up Jerome Boateng, who will have space and time to play his well known vertical passes.
He is distanced enough from Torres so Atletico striker can not press him and takes him away time on the ball. So now, Alonso can play pass to Jerome Boateng in left halfspace and Boateng have lot of space in front of him.
This was in common situation through the first half. Here is some more examples:
Martinez and Alonsoare pressed by Torres and Griezmann, and Vidal position himself diagonally in regard to the ball, creating triangle, overload and progressivity. Gabi recognizes situation and trigeer so tries to press Vidal because he turned his back to Atletico goal. Also, by doing this, Gabi will try to keep the ball in that zone and ensure that Torres and Griezmann are still active in defensive play. But yet again, Gabi was positioned too deep and can not be fast enough to press Vidal effectively, so Vidal, turns his head, sees Gabi who is coming to him, and:
Upon receiving the ball, he immediately plays pass to left halfspace for Jerome Boateng who was left free after Atletico pressing was invited to the right.
As i mentioned earlier, Bayern was much more centrally focused in this game, and main change was because of Costa and Ribery/Alaba central occupation. Douglas Costa, who was man marked in first game by Filipe Luis was played much more centrally in this game trying to find spaces to turn his face to opponent goal and exploit his dribbling skills. Also, Ribery and Alaba rotated constantly on the right side where most of the time one of them was in halfspace, and other occupying wide ares to strecth the field and give Bayern the width. One great example of Bayern positioning in possession:
Here we can see how Bayern circulated the ball from Martinez to Boateng and pull out Saul and Gabi from their positions in attempt to create space in midfield for progression (you can see how Saul is late to position himself near Augusto to secure horizontal compactness) and here Bayern have inverted triangle in midfield (Vidal, Alaba, Costa) in comparison to Atletico one (Gabi, Augusto, Saul) so theoretically Vidal can have diagonal options here to Alaba and Costa because Saul and Gabi are pulled out. But, good reaction from Griezmann and Koke who covers Saul and Gabi here disable that. Also, good position from Torres and Gabi blocks passing lane to Vidal, but, this back 3 and Atletico passive defence give Boateng time and space to play long ball behind Atletico defence to Muller who lays off to Lewandowski and Bayern creates great chance here.
Like i sad before, Bayern put more bodies into midfield, and Costa/Lahm rotation was particularly most important. In contrast to first leg, in this match Costa played more centrally, looking to escape from Luis man marking and looking for a ball into rigght halfspace to try to get space and time onto the ball and create numerical superiority in midfield.
But we need to admit that Atletico have good cover here, Gabi drops diagonally behind Augusto and Griezmann is set to cover Gabi and also close down eventual Costa access to central spaces with the ball. Costa here receives the ball, get past Gabi but stopped from Griezmann and Saul who is off the screen here.
So, it is clear how Pep adapted from first leg and change role of his wingers, especially Costa. It was common opinion that Guardiola in some moments were extreme in forcing isolations on the wings and focusing Bayern play on those positions. For example, this is the picture from the first leg:
We mentioned Atletico passivity and vertical uncompacntess between the strikers and midfield line. This often caused, like i mentioned earlier, easy Bayern overload in first phase and easy elimination of Atletico strikers and breaking out first line of pressing. We saw two examples when Gabi was late in pressing, and here is another one, this time from Augusto:
It was rare situation when Atletico midfielders offer support to their strikers high on the pitch. I caught one situation when they did it, and in that situation they forced Bayern to go long:
Atletico in deeper areas defensively
Although they struggle defensively high up the pitch, they still managed to keep good compacntess and control space in their own half. With good covering and moving towards the ball, Atletico managed to create overloads near the ball especialy in wide areas. When they were in deep defensive block near their own goal, Griezmann and Torres have important role of preventing Bayern to easily and quickly transfer the ball to opposite side of the pitch.
Here, Alaba receives the ball and was pressed by Saul, meaning that Alaba don't have space on the ball.Gabi keep horizontal compactness covering Saul horizontally. Augusto drops diagonally to cover Gabi and control space between Gabi and Gimenez who, with Juanfran, controls Ribery. So here, Atletico have 5v3 situation and can easily recover possession or force Bayern to go back.
Atletico defensive changes
During the course of the game, Simeone tend to change formation defensively from 442 to 4141 to put more bodies into midfield because of Bayern structure in possession and also effectively cover their 8's in order to better control spaces between the lines.
One of the main reasons for formation change. Vidal pulls out wide to receive the ball and Costa offers himself diagonally. Augusto presses Costa and leaves space behind him unmarked and Gabi is late to cover. Muller recognizes situation very well and positions himself behind Augusto. Vidal plays great pass to Muller and Muller plays one touch pass to Lewandowski, great example of third man move. Also, this is great example of creating superiority over the pressing line of the opponent, one of the main principles in juego de posicion.
What is interesting is that Simeone changed to 4141 after first 15 minutes, and then several minutes later opted back to 442 formation. But, at the start of the second half, Atletico again position themselves into 4141 formation and in that formation they played until the end of the game.
I showed above example of Atletico's 4141 and how they overloaded space on ball side, and here we can see how Saul position himself between Koke and Godin disabling Costa's access into midfield with the ball, creating 5v2 in Atletico's favour and forcing Costa to the touchline.
Also, one more thing is worth to mention. In second half, Atletico tries to press Bayern high up the pitch in various situations and disable their construction phase in possession.
Example of how Atletico midfield structure is positioned higher than in first half trying to prevent Bayern's build up. But, Torres did not position his body correctly here to block pass to Alonso and Bayern pretty easily gets out from this situation. But, main preference of this photo is to show higher positioning of Atletico midfield structure in defensive phase.
Guardiola second half adaptations
Main change from Bayern in second half is Lahm-Costa rotation. Because of Atletico pressing and closing down Alonso better after the half time, Guardiola moved Lahm inside to create superiority and progress more easily from the first line of attack.
Click on the photo to see it better. Here you can see how Atletico tries to create 3v3 situation in Bayern build up phase where Koke and Torres tries to press Vidal and also blocking passing lanes to Boateng and Alonso. Carrasco is pressing Martinez and it seems that Bayern have no output. But, Lahm is moving inside and Vidal plays vertical pass to him which breaks Atletico pressing and Lahm plays one touch pass to Alonso who now have time and space on the ball.
Bayern horizontal connections with aim to stretch the field and Atletico structure and also to enable 1v1 situations for Costa. Here we can see how Guardiola invites Lahm to play the ball to Costa who will have clear 1v1 situation against Luis.
As second half goes on, Bayern tries to create triangles on both sides to try to exploit Atletico horizontal uncompactness between centre backs and full backs and maybe to force Luis and Juanfran to get closer to their centre backs which will maybe leave more space to Costa and Ribery on the ball. But, Atletico stayed tight to their plan and continue to use their wings and 8's in controlling the halfspaces.
Bayern creates triangle on the right where Lahm position himself in the halfspace between Luis and Godin. Atletico responds well as Koke is blocking pass to Lahm and Luis stays close to Costa. Even if Martinez plays pass to Costa, Koke will have time to drop off to mark Lahm. So the only way to hurt Atletico here is to play vertical ball into the halfspace.
In this situation, Lahm manages to play vertical pass to Muller to exploit Atletico's horizontal uncompactness, leavig Muller in 1v1 situation with Godin, where Muller maybe can use fact that he is faster than Godin. But very smart positioning from Godin and usage of his strength stopped Muller from creating a great chance for Bayern.
So, Bayern and Guardiola are stopped again in the semifinals of the Champions League, for third year in a row. But, Bayern, especially in the second leg played one of the best games in Guardiola's era at Bayern, especially in the first half, so, i believe that they did everything they could to overturn this leg and who knows how in which direction would this game gone if Muller scored a penalty in the first half.
With this game, Guardiola have finished his tenure in Bayern in Champions League without a trophy, but with plenty of games that should and must be watched again and again because of Guardiola masterminded tactics. When you discuss about Guardiola's impact Bayern and whether is it succesfull or not, and whether Guardiola is great coach or not, we can only say one thing that Thiery Henry said: "We are talking about a guy who when he doesn't win the Champions League it seems like it's failure."
So, i believe that this sentence is best ilustration how good he is.
