Our tactics writer Aidan Smith, from Tactically Speaking, explains where Borussia Dortmund can threaten Real Madrid in the Champions League final.
Are Real Madrid the best team in the world? Maybe it’s Manchester City. Either way, they’re certainly better than Borussia Dortmund, who’ve struggled desperately in the Bundesliga this season, finishing fifth, a mighty 27 points off the top and scoring 15 goals fewer than the 2022/23 campaign.
There’s no question that Dortmund are the underdogs in this year’s UEFA Champions League final, but this is a side that seem to produce their best football on the biggest nights. Meanwhile, Real Madrid’s domestic success has shaded one or two structural weaknesses that Dortmund are well set up to exploit.
Real Madrid‘s attack is nothing unordinary. They create a 2-3-5 shape by allowing the full-backs to bomb forward, and keeping three of their midfielders deep, just in front of the centre-backs. This gives them five players to protect against counter-attacks.
However, with their full-backs so high, central midfielders like Fede Valverde and Toni Kroos have to defend wide spaces. Dortmund are a team with both wide wingers and wide, athletic full-backs, so pose a serious threat out wide. If they can spring a longball-style counter-attack on Real Madrid using Jadon Sancho and Karim Adeyemi, this could force Real Madrid’s players into unfamiliar positions. They would have to quickly decide who is responsible for tracking back to defend Dortmund’s wide players.
When Dortmund do get the chance to build up slowly from the back, this is another area where they’ll know Real Madrid can be caught out. This term, Real Madrid have turned their 4-1-2-1-2 shape into a traditional 4-4-2 out of possession, with Jude Bellingham filling in as a left-midfielder during the press.
This is already asking a lot of Bellingham to quickly change his position when they lose the ball. Add to that Dortmund’s love of attacking out wide — with link-ups between the full-backs and wingers — and suddenly Bellingham’s job becomes that much harder to get out wide swiftly.
If Dortmund can get the ball to their right-back Julian Ryerson before Real Madrid can set up properly, they could create dangerous overloads out wide, and Real Madrid may be in trouble.
Of course, Real Madrid will see most of the ball as a possession-based side. There’s no doubt Dortmund will be working on their pressing shape, and the good news is their usual press would work rather nicely against Real’s attacking formation.
Dortmund like to create an aggressive 4-1-4-1 formation out of possession, with their central midfielders jumping high to man-mark. If they can stay tight, this will take Real’s midfielders out of the game and their near-side full-back too.
The German side do tend to leave Emre Can slightly isolated in defensive midfield, but they combat this by using Mats Hummels more aggressively. If the likes of Bellingham can find space beyond Dortmund’s press, Hummels is comfortable stepping into midfield to join Can and close down a player in space. When this happens, Ryerson will have to tuck in narrower, to stop Vinícius Júnior from running in behind.
Real Madrid’s main weakness is their wide spaces. Luckily, this is Dortmund’s main strength. A game in which all traffic goes through the flanks is a game in which Dortmund will have a good chance. As anyone in football will say, anything can happen in the final.
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