Yesterday we saw an adrenaline filled match between Real Madrid and Barcelona in the Women's Champions League Quarterfinal which Barca won 3-1. Real Madrid poured their heart and soul into the game and will be disappointed with the result. Barcelona seemed not to have shown up. Once the emotions and excitement subside, one can see that Madrid looked to press with numbers and intensity as well as exploit the Barcelona backline. Barca's defense isn't always tested, but there have been a couple games over the last 2 years that show where their weakness is. In this post, I'll give examples from yesterday's game as well as past games in the Champions League.
Because Barcelona is so dominant and is a heavy possession based side, they are often not tested defensively. That is the reason why I think they have not properly addressed the issue. Center back Mapi León is an aggressive and proactive defender. She constantly is looking to stop plays as they develop. In possession, she is a playmaker in the backline. This causes her positioning to be higher than the rest of her backline and her partnering center back. In yesterday's game, it was clear that Madrid wanted to exploit León's aggressive positioning and create 1v1 situations between Madrid center forward Esther and Barca center back Andrea Pereira. They did this by sending long balls into Esther in order to create the situation quickly and make Pereira defend while she was facing her own goal. It was clearly part of the game plan as all of Madrid center back Peter, left back Svava, and midfielder Zornoza played this pass throughout the game. This can be seen in the photos below. The 1v1s with Esther and Pereira are circled in red and the position of León is circled in blue.
As mentioned earlier, this is not a new problem for Barcelona. Against PSG in the Champion's League Semifinal last year, PSG took advantage of Barcelona's expansive possession shape on turnovers. In the photo below, Barcelona left back Leila Ouahabi had played an awkward ball to Pereira, who could not control it and lost possession. León was in her left center back/left back role that she takes up during possession and was on the fringe of trying to stop the PSG counterattack. Luckily for Barcelona, Katoto missed her 1v1 with the goalkeeper.
The team that really punished Barcelona, though, was Lyon in the 2019 Champion's League Final. In the clip below, the Lyon center back sends a long ball to her outside forward. León and Ouahabi are not in good positions and it was León who ultimately put pressure on the forward. Poor marking in the box from Barcelona meant that the Lyon forward had an easy finish from her teammate's cross.
Video taken from UEFA YouTube channel.
Minutes later, Barcelona lost possession in a wide area where Ouahabi had pushed higher up. The pass played down the line to the Lyon forward created an identical situation to the buildup to the first goal. León and Ouahabi were out of position and León is the one who stepped to the forward. Pereira cannot reach Lyon forward Ada Hegerberg in the box, and she scored. This can be seen below.
Video taken from UEFA YouTube channel.
Madrid's game plan to isolate Esther against Pereira might have been different if center back Irene Paredes had started. When Paredes did come into the game, Madrid were less effective with the long ball. Paredes was solid in her individual battles, and read the game better than the teammate she replaced. In the clip below, one can see the physicality that Paredes was willing to give to make sure that Esther did not end up goal side with the ball as she had multiple times throughout the game.
Video taken from DAZN UEFA Women's Champions League YouTube channel.
Paredes also tracked Esther when she checked deeper to provide an option for her teammates. In the video below, not only does Paredes read the play to stay with Esther as she dropped deeper, she realized she had to keep that pressure so that Esther didn't switch play to her right winger or slip a ball to a late midfield run.
Video taken from DAZN UEFA Women's Champions League YouTube channel.
Paredes possesses the passing ability to play for some of the best possession based teams in the world. However, she is also a world class defender and her skillset allows her to cover up the deficiencies or tendencies of her center back partners (Paulina Dudek's lack of pace at PSG and León's aggressive nature for Spain and Barcelona). The blend of her passing and defensive abilities pass the stats test as well as the eye test. The image below is taken from Statsbomb and is based on Paredes' season last year with PSG.
Irene Paredes was a key signing for Barcelona last summer, and could be key for them retaining their European title. Would Madrid's game plan have been different had she started? It's hard to tell, but luckily we might get the answer when the teams meet again next week. Regardless, this has been an issue for Barcelona for a couple of years now, and if they want to stay at the top, it is something they need to address.