00:00I was thinking, are we allowed to say that Abelhoa had a tactical masterclass against Pep Guardiola in the first
00:08leg of the Champions League?
00:09Because I think my conclusion is, yes, we can.
00:12So, what did he do against City that meant Valverde could turn into choose your legend and score three goals
00:23and have the best game of his life?
00:25Well, Valverde himself actually told us after the game.
00:30He said that Abelhoa's decision to play three midfielders against City's two gave him the freedom to be this force
00:41of nature on the right-hand side.
00:44So, Man City played with Rodri and Bernardo in the middle.
00:48And Real Madrid played with Thiago, Choumeny and Arda Goula, three versus two.
00:55Now, what that does is, with Bernardo as the floating midfielder, he goes everywhere.
01:01So, someone's either following him or he's either moving into a space and somebody's already there, just because of the
01:06nature of an overload.
01:07There's that and then there's the fact that when he does go somewhere else, that just leaves Rodri all on
01:12his own in the middle of the pitch as the only midfielder in Man City's team.
01:16Brackets, which is why we saw Guardiola bring Tijani Randerson in the second half to add more presence in the
01:22middle of the pitch.
01:23But anyway, back to Valverde.
01:24So, with this three versus two, Valverde was free to do what he wants, to become a whirlwind on the
01:31right-hand side of the pitch, run up and down, go wherever he wanted.
01:34Whatever player moved out of their position to help Rodri cover that three versus one at times overload, Valverde could
01:42just move into there.
01:43Brahim could just move into there.
01:45Vinicius was even seen in the middle and on the right, could just move into there.
01:49This is the tactical masterclass, if you want to call it that, that Arbeloa, or the tactical decision that Arbeloa
01:55made that saw Valverde benefit and win and score three goals in 27 minutes, whatever it was.
02:0222 minutes, I just checked.
02:04That was the perfect decision from Arbeloa, and it worked perfectly well for Real Madrid and Valverde.
02:09The first half of the game was Real Madrid exploiting this difference, and Manchester City trying to react to it.
02:18It's very difficult when you've got a player as good as Valverde, who decides to be the free spirit in
02:23the team.
02:25Normally, he's running like a train, but on train tracks this time.
02:30This time, he was free to roam.
02:34That was the first half.
02:35The second half, we saw Tajani Rainders come on, as I said, and give Man City some more, not only
02:41control in the middle, but what he also does is he's that perfect second line of attack.
02:45Tajani Rainders is normally really good at doing that.
02:48But you're 3-0 down.
02:50By this point, the game's gone.
02:52It's true that a couple of amazing Courtois saves kept Real Madrid in it on the scoreboard, but emotionally, I
03:01feel at least, that Real Madrid had already won the game.
03:06Man City were already gone, basically.
03:10Then you've got the history of the game, which you can check out in another video.
03:14The head-to-head record, the psychological aspect of Guardiola losing again at the burnabout.
03:20Everything adds up, the crowd, this thing of Real Madrid being terrible all year and really good when it matters.
03:28Again.
03:28Amen.
03:29Amen.
03:29Amen.
03:29Amen.
03:29Amen.
03:30Amen.
03:31Amen.
03:32Amen.
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