<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; Cristiano Ronaldo lifts the Champions League trophy after Real Madrid's 4-1 win over Atletico Madrid on Saturday. (Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Finals don\u2019t often come down to pretty football, especially those that go into extra time. That doesn\u2019t mean the tactical battles are any less compelling, as Real Madrid\u2019s 4-1 win in the Champions League final over Atl\u00E9tico showed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Both managers made strange decisions in their starting lineups. Diego Costa, supposedly fit after his horse-placenta hamstring treatment, didn\u2019t even last 10 minutes for Atl\u00E9tico, while Sami Khedira played a rather ineffective hour in just his third appearance for Real since recovering from a serious knee injury.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Diego Simeone\u2019s decision ended up being the costly one, as his well-tuned team couldn\u2019t hold up against Real for the full 120 minutes without a substitute available to replace an injured Juanfran. He had to carry on with one good ankle, and Atl\u00E9tico paid for it by losing the trophy after being two minutes away from lifting it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;&lt;b&gt;Atl\u00E9tico\u2019s disciplined defense stifles Real for 90 minutes&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In typical Atl\u00E9ti fashion, Simeone\u2019s side adopted a largely defensive posture for the majority of the game. The players\u2019 work rate and commitment to the team cause showed again, limiting Real\u2019s deadly counterattack to only a couple chances.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;BIRD: Examining Ancelotti\u2019s appreciation for the counterattack&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After an Atl\u00E9tico corner kick in the 26th minute, \u00C1ngel di Mar\u00EDa charged down the left flank and had to be fouled to prevent a major opportunity. A few minutes later, Tiago gave the ball away cheaply and uncharacteristically near goal, but Gareth Bale couldn\u2019t direct a shot on target.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; (Screenshot: Fox Sports)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Especially\u00A0in winning second balls, Atl\u00E9tico\u2019s work rate took over the game, causing a series of fouls in the first half in particular. When Koke jumps to challenge for an aerial ball above, three others are within the likely knockdown area, with David Villa on hand in case he manages to flick it forward. The clich\u00E9d term for this in football parlance is \u201Chunting in packs.\u201D&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; (Screenshot: Fox Sports)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The most easily executable defensive formation is a 4-4-2, which Atl\u00E9tico adopted for the majority of the season in games it expected to win on the break. The defensive pairings all over the field \u2014 central partners in defense, midfield and forward and the ability to double up in wide areas \u2014 make it difficult to break down.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BIRD: Three Thoughts on Real Madrid's Champions League title triumph&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On Saturday, Atl\u00E9tico crowded out the middle of the field with four or five players and pulled two wide to defend Real\u2019s flank play. Atl\u00E9tico applied high pressure in the attacking half but dropped into its shell when Real sustained possession and built from the back.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; (Screenshot: Fox Sports)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Carlo Ancelotti\u2019s team started in a 4-3-3 despite playing 4-4-2 in the last few Champions League matches. After 20 minutes, Cristiano Ronaldo struggled to find much of the ball, and Real\u2019s emphasis changed from crowding out the middle to isolating play on the wings and hitting long, diagonal balls to unpack Atl\u00E9tico\u2019s low block.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The switch was fairly simple, to a 4-4-1-1. Ronaldo joined Karim Benzema in the forward line, but he\u00A0had more freedom to roam underneath, and di Mar\u00EDa pushed to the left flank, leaving Khedira and Luka Modri\u0107 alone in the center.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The payoff didn\u2019t come until about the 70th minute, as Ronaldo finally drifted successfully to the right side to combine more with Bale. The Ronaldo-Bale combination gave Real a couple of late opportunities, but again, Bale was off target.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;&lt;b&gt;Real dictates the game&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Partly by design and partly by virtue of its one-on-one maestros in wide areas, Real set the tempo and had the vast majority of possession in the match. Usually, Atl\u00E9tico\u2019s wingers can be described as \u201Cindented,\u201D with Koke and Arda Turan \u2014 who missed the final due to injury \u2014 pinching in to support the two holding midfielders.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; (Screenshot: Fox Sports)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, Koke and Ra\u00FAl Garc\u00EDa had too much to do defensively\u00A0in covering Ronaldo, Bale and di Mar\u00EDa to worry about getting forward very often. Arda Turan would have been helpful in providing some attacking impetus, as would a freer Koke, but Atl\u00E9tico\u2019s defensive and midfield lines were largely occupied with defending this game.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; (Chalkboard: Squawka.com)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Despite Villa\u2019s best efforts as a shadow striker, Atl\u00E9tico\u2019s sorest lack of presence was in the area patrolled by a true No. 10. Atl\u00E9ti\u2019s passing and heat maps from the match show a reduced number of passes compared to Real, as well as a U shape that exposes the gap between midfield and attack.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One of the most noteworthy numbers of the match is Atl\u00E9tico\u2019s measly\u00A0eight\u00A0pass attempts\u00A0from Zone 14 (the red area in the diagram at right). This is another inherent risk in a 4-4-2 with two defensive-minded midfielders: getting numbers around the ball centrally and linking the back half of the team with the front half.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Despite Villa\u2019s immense work rate, Atl\u00E9tico couldn\u2019t find much play in Zones 14 or 11 (directly behind Zone 14 in the central channel). It didn\u2019t help that Diego Costa\u2019s replacement, Adri\u00E1n L\u00F3pez, had a series of poor touches and misplayed passes from his isolated position.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;WILSON: Atletico Madrid reaches its breaking point in loss to Real Madrid&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;&lt;b&gt;Persistence in attack pays off just in time&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Extra time is attritional, especially for a group as athletic as Real against a team that works as hard as Atl\u00E9ti all over the field. Real needed a set-piece goal in the dying moments of the game to crawl back into it, but once that goal fell, only one result looked likely. Simeone knew the five minutes of additional time at the end of the match did his team no favors, as he complained to referee Bj\u00F6rn Kuipers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; (Chalkboard: Squawka.com)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Throw in the fact that Atl\u00E9ti had no substitutions remaining when Juanfran suffered a painful ankle injury, and it was only a matter of time before Real scored. The only question was: would Ronaldo, Bale, et. al. find a way through before time ran out? They did, more than once, as Atl\u00E9tico\u2019s players were completely out of gas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Juanfran was the main target of Real\u2019s attacks in extra time, down Real\u2019s left and Atl\u00E9tico\u2019s right, including on the winning goal scored by Bale.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; (Screenshot: Fox Sports)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Two vital missteps on the crucial play show the state Atl\u00E9ti\u2019s players were in at the time: first, Tiago misses on his attempt to corral Iker Casillas\u2019 long clearance (likely because of his tired legs and brain), and then, Juanfran dives into a tackle after being turned around by di Mar\u00EDa on the dribble, as his injury wouldn't\u00A0allow him the same mobility he usually enjoys.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;WATCH: Bale's Champions League-winning goal&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Conceding twice more made the final result increasingly harsh on a team that, over the course of the season, showed more fitness and physical ability than most. It\u2019s amazing how well Atl\u00E9tico\u2019s players have stood up to Simeone\u2019s demanding style, not just this season but throughout the past two years.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;All in for &lt;i&gt;La D\u00E9cima&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The way Real-Atl\u00E9tico ended was less about tactics and more about individual exploitation and execution. Atl\u00E9tico simply wore down to the point that it was hanging on desperately against one of the only teams that could match it physically.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The end of the match was the culmination of everything the match provided: two master tacticians playing a chess match with world-class players at their disposal who would do anything to win the battle.\u00A0This final was everything good about the game today, played without fear or timidity on either side, with a commitment to the team cause that brilliantly reflected the personalities of each club.\nIf the 2014 World Cup final has the same combination of elements as the 2014 Champions League final, we are in for another stunning display.&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/05/26/champions-league-final-atletico-real-madrid-tactics>