Real Madrid 1-2 Sevilla Review

By: Corey | October 5th, 2009

Sevilla 2-1 Real Madrid

Real went down 2-1 to a spirited Sevilla team in the late match on Sunday night. To say it was not what Real fans expected is an understatement, but it was still a good match none the less. Real came up short in several areas, and clearly were effected by the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo. Sevilla played the game just as we expected them to, with heavy play down the wings and lots of crosses, which in truth was handled well by our center back pairing, but defensive frailties on the wings really compounded the loss for Real. Marcelo’s inept display will draw the ire from Madridistas, but the midfield battle was in Sevilla’s favor and our striker again had little service to work with.

MATCH STATS
Sevilla FC Real Madrid
Shots (on Goal) 24(10) 17(3)
Fouls 20 9
Corner Kicks 14 6
Offsides 2 2
Time of Possession 43% 58%
Yellow Cards 4 3
Red Cards 0 0
Saves 2 8

Sevilla
Palop
Konko
Dragutinovic
Squillaci
sub F. Navarro 24′
Adriano
Renato Goal 69′
Zokora
Jesús Navas Goal 34′
Luis Fabiano
Perotti
sub Capel 60′
Negredo
sub Kanouté 67′

Real Madrid
Casillas
Sergio Ramos
Pepe Goal 51′
Albiol
Marcelo
Xabi Alonso
Kaká
Diarra
sub Van der Vaart 75′
Guti H.
sub Granero 83′
Raúl
Benzema
sub Higuaín 55′

1st Half:

- First five minutes, its been all Sevilla. Konko was able to sneak in behind Marcelo on the overlap and his cross was dangerous but cleared for a corner. Awful defending from the Brazilian.

- Kaka is called offside wrongfully, Djila played a smart ball but it may have been to hard.

- Pepe with a strong header away for a corner. Sevilla is tormenting Marcelo and getting centers in whenever possible. Konko’s header from a corner is over the bar, no one was marking him.

- Decent ball movement in the midfield of Real, but Sevilla is breaking quickly and they look more dangerous. Navas with a shot that is deflected by Casillas who charged out off his line. Navas centers the ball with a bike but its cleared.

- Raul is playing very deep, as the strikers have not seen the ball at all in the first 15 minutes. Ramos is hacked down by Adriano, and Jimenez screams at the ref as he thought it was a dive. On replay, there was plenty of contact and the ref talks to Jimenez.

- Great step by Pepe in midfield, but the ball continues to stay with Sevilla, as they are exerting a great deal of pressure. The left flank is the source of their attacks and someone needs to help Marcelo, he is overwhelmed with players.

- Guti has looked excellent so far, as had Djila, who took no bull from Luis Fabiano and the two tumble to the ground. Play on, and Djila looks pissed that he was actually wrestled to the ground.

- Benzema has not touched the ball yet…

- Marcelo nutmegs Navas but his held back.

- Fabiano with a shot that is right at Casillas after a Renato pass. Xabi Alonso is not closing down players at the top of the box very well.

- OOOHH Djila with a nice back heel to Benzema, that was pretty. Benzema looses possession though.

- Wow, Negredo brings a long ball down, shrugging off Ramos, turning and pushing the ball across the box but Fabiano hits his shot in to the ground and it rolls to Casillas. Dangerous moment there.

- Marcelo gets a low shot in, but its wide.

- Del Nido and Perez sitting next to one another. Can the planet handle two egos so large in such close proximity?

- Quick passing movement ends up at Marcelo’s feet but he slips and duffs the ball at Palop. Benzema was waiting for a center.

- Ramos gets a card for leaving his leg in on Perotti. Jimenez needs to keep his theatrics to the local play house, he is calling for a card anytime a Sevilla player goes to ground, even though they are hacking the shit out of Real players.

- Casillas with a heavy touch off a back pass, but when he goes to cut the ball back in front of Fabiano, his boot is high and nails Casillas in the jibblets. Got off the hook there.

- Djila has been sorely missed, he has dominated so far today. Squillaci is brought off for Navarro, must have been a muscle pull.

- Sevilla is pumping long balls to Negredo and Fabiano, but they are not getting much space to do anything with them. Casillas dives at a deflected Navas shot that looked like it was going in. Iker had it covered.

- Benzema whiffs on a great chance after Raul took a superb Guti through ball and cut back, wrong footing Konko and sliding the ball across the box. Should have scored there.

- Negredo beats Pepe and Djila on the dribble but his cross is cleared awkwardly by Ramos. Looking shaky at the back now.

- Perotti is such a wimp. Any touch and he rolls around on the floor. Get up and play, Sevilla is being the rougher of the two sides anyways.

- Real asserting themselves more in the last ten minutes, but Marcelo is still getting beat every time the ball comes down the left wing.

- Ahh, he gets burned again. Poor positioning and he can never react at an acceptable speed to runners.

- Kaka and Benzema have been invisible so far.

- Marcelo flat footed in the box and Navas jumps over him to head home a Navarro cross after he was put in by a Perotti back heel. That was a weak cross, and could have been cleared easily, but Marcelo never jumped. Pathetic.

- Marcelo has been awful, I am disgusted with his play.

- Zokora gets in Guti’s face after he got caught on the heel. No need for that, and Guti starts screaming at him as the crowd grows bigger. Tsk Tsk now Perotti says something to Guti, what a little bitch. Guti is enraged and is being held back by team mates, and Perotti is thrashing as Raul gives him a talking to. Uncalled for from the Sevilla players, but Guti should have kept his cool. Its not the Bernabeu.

- Xabi with a shot that Palop saves. Awkward technique there.

- Djila has been imperious in the center of the field so far.

- Ugh, Marcelo is single handedly loosing this game for us. Pull him!

- Xabi has been slow on the ball and has been stripped from behind a few times. Not one of his better games so far.

- Guti got wound up, and now he is misplaying passes all over the field.

- No one steps to the free man at the edge of the box, and Sevilla are allowed to maintain possession in our half to easily. Navas has another pop from distance. off the corner, Renato gets a free header but Casillas kick saves. Amazing reflex from Iker there, that should have been a goal. Xabi blew the marking on that one, he is not tracking back very consistently with Renato.

- Perotti and Guti shake hands before leaving the field. Well done lads.

2nd Half:

- Higuain on for the ineffective Benzema. Does not look worth the money at this point.

- Casilla robs Perotti on the door step. Should have been 2-0 now. Thats pretty lucky for us, have to admit.

- Pepe scores off a free kick from Guti. 1-1 and we are back in the contest. Great ball from Guti, and Pepe beat Negredo to the ball with a thumping header that Palop had no chance at. Perfect start to the second half.

- We are pressing more which is good to see, and as evident by the space in the midfield, the game will be more end to end now.

- ARGH! Diarra with a free header three yards from goal but he puts it well wide. How did he miss that?

- Capel comes on for Perotti.

- Navas makes Marcelo look like a fool yet again, but Albiol is there to block the cross and clean up the mess. After the corner Kaka breaks quickly and passes to Higuain who goes vertical after Adriano stuck a leg in. The free kick hits Fabiano’s arm in the wall but nothing is given. Tough to see at first glance anyways, no fault to the ref.

- Albiol again saves Marcelo with a nice slide. From the throw Fabiano takes a quick shot from a terrible angle and its out for a goal kick.

- The ball moves from Kaka to Raul to Higuain to Guti, who cuts around Adriano in to the box but his cross is blocked. Ramos has a chance off the short corner but he skies it. Negredo leaves the field, Kanoute on.

- Navarro with a shot that deflects wide. From the corner, the ball is left short and with everyone stepping up, Renato is left alone to head in for the 2-1. Raul blew the marking there. We cannot defend set pieces!

- Xabi skys a shot. Then Marcelo runs up the field, falls down with no contact, does not get up and Sevilla breaks quickly. God damnit Marcelo.

- Diara with a 1-2 to Pipita, and Djila’s cross is blocked. Our crossing is piss poor, how do we create chances if we cannot get the ball in to the box?

- Kanoute shoots in to the side netting from a tight angle. Pellegrini has no answer for the wide play of Sevilla, he has shown how inflexible he is mid-game with his tactics.

- Van der Vaart on for Djila now. Not going to help anything.

- Ramos claims to have gotten hit in the face, as he usually does when he is back heel does not work out, but Capel runs the length of the field unchallenged. We lost this game, there is no way back now.

Match Highlights:

Opinions on the Match:

Phil Ball’s thoughts on the match.

If you can read Spanish, check out Roncero at AS.

If you can speak/understand spoken Spanish, listen/watch Martin Vazquez as he gives his thoughts on the match here.

Pellegrini Post Match Comments:

Two mistakes cost us the match, but we did have a chance to equalize.”

“Sevilla are having a great run. They deserved to win. They had more scoring opportunities than we did.”

“It is important to be in the upper echelons of the table at this stage of the season. You cannot predict what will happen from here on out.”

“You cannot be happy when you lose, but we made mistakes that resulted in goals. I think the match was decided by defensive mistakes. The fact that two relatively short players scored with their heads worries me.”

“Cristiano Ronaldo is an important player, but we built a team to compensate for players who are unavailable.”

My Thoughts:

Pellegrini lost this match just as much as the team did. He had no answer for Sevilla’s wing play, and Jimenez exploited the weakness. Its not as if Jimenez had a tactical master class, as that is how Sevilla always plays, but he won this one. Pellegrini could have played with one striker and a stronger midfield that could help cover the wide areas, but without Lass to help that would be tough. Mahamdou had a promising first game of the season, and I think he did really well, but he cannot be expected to cover wide areas, he drops as deep as a center back most of the time. He was pretty dominant winning the ball back, but in truth Sevilla won the midfield battle as well.

Kaka was shackled all game by Zokora, and had little contribution to the match. Xabi Alonso rarely got to grips with Renato floating around, and he was pretty ineffective with the ball at his feet as well. Not one of his better games, and after Guti got in a tussle with Zokora/Perotti, he also faded fast in to ineffective ball playing. Raul ran his ass off, but with Benzema doing next to nothing, and Higuain looking a shade of himself, he was not able to get much going. The fact that Kaka was marked out of the game meant there was little service for Raul and Benzema/Higuain. And that is where the problem lies. We have no wing play! Ronaldo is our solitary winger in the squad, and after selling off Robben, many fans dreaded this day. It is far to easy to jam up the center of the field and prevent Real from getting in to stride. With no support from the flanks, we are to predictable, and as Sevilla showed, to easy to limit.

Lack of natural wingers plus Pellegrini’s tendency to not even put players out wide has not only contributed to a lack of options in the midfield, but it has made our possession almost pointless, as opposition teams do not mind us knocking it around for a few passes. Eventually we force a pass and then the other team counters. If we had players on the wings, we could spread Sevilla out more and open up play. As Sevilla showed us, you create a majority of your chances from the wings, regardless of whether it is a cross or not.

The lack of a presence on the wings also resulted in the defensive weaknesses there. Ramos and Marcelo both had little support from a midfielder when defending. The fact that Sevilla’s wing backs were able to over lap with ease further complicated the matter. Pellegrini seems to have reverted to the Schuster idea of using Marcelo and Ramos as the only presence on the wings, but no player can both defend and attack in equal measure. Ramos was beat a few times but he held up fairly well, although his offensive contributions were ineffective. Marcelo had a nightmare, but he to suffered from a lack of help besides a center back occasional covering when he was out of position. I am not defending Marcelo’s play, he was awful, but we know he is not a good defender, and so does the rest of the league. That Pellegrini does not try and compensate for that is a huge tactical error.

If Kaka can not spark the team to life and provide chances for the strikers, then your pretty much stuck. Guti did his best early on, but by the second half he to found space hard to come by, and no one making runs. He began to force passes and often lost possession. Xabi was similar. While Sevilla’s front two were always making incisive diagonal runs, our strikers were barely moving. Benzema made one decent run out wide, but we then pass the ball all the way back to the center circle for Xabi. How is that progress? If Benzema and Raul could not make decent runs for Guti to find, or Kaka could not create something, we were simply treading water when we had the ball. The fact that without Gago on the field, we still passed the ball backwards more often the forwards says a lot about Pellegrini’s tactical blunder.

If we had Ronaldo would we have won this match? Maybe. Its hard to say. Kaka may have found more space, the Sevilla wing backs may have not overlapped as much and Jimenez may have reeled in his midfield a bit. But we did not have him, and we showed we do not have to many ideas outside Ronaldo. Pellegrini needs to get somebody playing in a wider position to create attacks, help our full backs, and spread the play and the opposition midfield. Granero is the obvious choice, but Van der Vaart was preferred instead. He did nothing when brought on, and further clogged up the center of the pitch. It would have been better to use Granero on the right before Van der Vaart in a bid to open the midfield up. Higuain also could have been used in a wide position, which someone suggested in the match comments, but Pellegrini does not see him as such a player.

I could go on and on, but the point here is that our flaws were found out, and we need to look in to how to resolve those. With 13 players leaving for international duty, we will have plenty of time to talk about this match. We should not have our heads down, as it is early in the season and this defeat does not doom us. Remember, we have a very talented team, but we still have a long way to go before we can play as a more cohesive unit. Enjoy the international break everyone, I know I will. I have banked a few posts for the week, but other then that I am taking some time off, I have a ton of homework to do. Let me know your thoughts on the match in the comments. Lets take a real good look in to the performance and get some constructive criticism for the team to work with.

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