O argentino recua demasiado, mas que golo de Pietuszewski. Os Dragões já não precisam de arriscar tantos números no ataque. Dahl e Schjelderup em bom nível. A posição de segundo avançado do Benfica, que pede desvios rápidos e bem sentidos, requer um perfil diferente de Rafa.
Um Porto mais eficaz em todos os momentos do jogo (pressão, área contrária). Numa das fases de pressão mais conseguidas do Benfica, Enzo subiu sobre Varela para permitir aos dois avançados marcarem os centrais e Otamendi deixou o meio-campo para se aproximar de Froholdt.
Schjelderup hesita em subir nos centrais ou cobrir Alberto Costa. No golo, Rafa largou a marcação de Varela. Otamendi está atrasado na abordagem, mas Enzo tem de estar consciente da presença de Froholdt nas costas e acompanhá-lo. Não deixa de ser uma bela jogada do Porto.
Pressão do Benfica por vezes deficiente quando Rafa e Pavlidis pressionam Diogo Costa tentando fechar a linha de passe para Varela, mas basta passar por Bednarek ou Kiwior para essa ou outra linha de passe abrir. Falta fluidez a este 4-4-2 defensivo.
On Barcelona’s side, it’s difficult to do much more against such a deep Atleti block, but there were so many individual attempts out wide ending in crosses (it's normal for Yamal), and perhaps not enough triangles.
Atleti tried a few breaks in the first half through Lookman, Griezmann and Álvarez, but they were isolated every time. Even facing Yamal, Ruggeri had to do better, but he let him get into the box and beat him on the outside far too easily.
Beyond tactics, Diego Simeone’s approach in this second leg is really disappointing (but not surprising). Winning 4-0 in the first leg, fully deserved, only to sit back for the entire 90 minutes, even as the aggregate lead kept shrinking.
Will slower defenders be exposed? Will they commit more fouls before the attacker even turns? It’s also worth noting that the margin issue would remain: an offside by one centimeter — regardless of the body part considered — is still offside by one centimeter.
But allowing an attacker to position almost their entire body ahead of a defender would give them the opportunity to start their run earlier and potentially gain a crucial second of advantage. I can’t help but feel that might be too much.
The change would prevent attackers from being flagged offside just because their foot is one centimeter ahead of a defender, a position that brings no real advantage and is impossible to judge with the naked eye, so you can’t expect forwards to time their runs any better.
About Wenger’s law, I’ve been hearing that defenses might start sitting deeper to avoid situations where a striker can run in behind without being stopped. Hard to know whether that will actually happen, though, since the overall trend still favors possession-based control among proactive teams.
