Shocking Results - UCL

Hellooooo.........

So, the first leg of UCL Semifinals were completed and both Barca and Real have very little chance to make it to final. Barca lost to Bayern 4-0, but it is understandable, given Barca's defence weaknesses + injured Messi and Bayern's attacking strength. But the second result, Dortmund beating Real 4-1 is unacceptable. Real has arguably one of the best defences in the world football and it is Jose Mourinho's side. All of his sides, be it Porto, Chelsea or Inter have compact and best defenders. How Dortmund managed to score 4 goals is simply shocking. Pepe was at fault for first goal, he couldn't contain Lewandowski. If Di Maria played at right wing instead of Ozil he would have tracked back, helped Ramos and prevented Gotze from simply crossing the ball with such ease into 6yd box for Polish striker to finish . For second goal, Pepe and Coentrao played Lewandowski onside and third goal was absolute masterclass finishing from the same man Lewandowski. Alonso was clearly frustrated with the third goal and he took matters into his own hands and pushed Rues in the penalty area leading to 4th goal, which was powerfully finished by Lewandowski again.


After seeing the match, I felt Real were weak in the midfield. If you see Gundagon's attempt and Schmelzer's shot on goal which Lewandowski finished after deflection, you will know that they had lots and lots of space in the midfield at both those instances. Is it because Real forwards didn't track back or poor positioning by Alonso and Khedira, I don't know. I find that Dortmund were very energetic and physical in their game. Short quick accurate passes by front four (Rues, Gotze, blaszczykowski and Lewandowski) disrupted the defence structure and they got easily  behind the defenders on many occassions. I wonder if players weren't prepared enough to deal with them. It clearly looked like BVB wanted to win more than Real. And when ever Real won the ball in their own half, most counter attacks were quickly disrupted by BVB by closing down the players.

I saw the match report and UEFA statistics, it was said that Lewnadowski was the difference between both sides. Both sides have more or less same amount of pass completion ratio, distance travelled, possession. So, it may be the case that Lewandowski's finishing was superb. Mourinho said the same, we had analysed every minute detail about him, but still he scored 3 goals (4th one was a penalty), means it was defensive weakness that earned him man of the match.-

Now there is not much to be done, just to hope for the best. It is very difficult to go all out attacking on such a team which is very good at transition play and counter attacking. I guess Mourinho would play 3 men midfield so as to not allow much space for Gotze and Rues to dictate play. For Real to beat them, I hope individual brilliance will do the trick, say from deal ball situations like corners, free kicks. For if we commit too many men forward, we might risk a goal being scored on counter....... But the best thing is Real has what it takes to overturn the result unlike Barca. Barca doesn't yet have any regular starting defender even for the second leg, and it isn't known if messi is fit or not. But we have best forwards in Ronaldo, Di Maria and Ozil. I don't know about Benzema and Higuain. Xabi Alonso must find his forwards with long passes and with perfect finishing it could be done......

Anyway, one can say I was shocked and disappointed at the result. Some times, you hope that it is just a bad dream and the match hasn't yet happened. But that isn't the case. Three consecutive CL semis losses would be very hard for such talented Real to take. If Mourinho and Ronaldo leave next season, then again this team rebuilding starts and it may take a while to win 'La Decima'. If Alonso too leaves, then gone case wonly....Lets see what happens........