Real Madrid faced Juventus for the third game of the UEFA Champions League group stage, and Los Blancos won three points to join the four leading teams of this phase with nine points each.
Real Madrid did the job and secured the win, but their performance was not that satisfying for the teams fans and followers.
They believe the team could have scored more goals, as they did not exploit 100% of their attacking potential.
More importantly, Real Madrid risked conceding more than one goal due to several worrying defensive mistakes that allowed Juventus to threaten Real Madrid’s goal and get very close to scoring.
Luckily for Real Madrid, Juventus’ attacking players failed to be as crucial as needed in terms of finishing, which helped Real Madrid avoid a dramatic ending of the match.
On the other hand, Juventus’ performance was much better than the last few ones since Juventus looked much more solid in defence and did an excellent job limiting Real Madrid’s threats while creating several dangerous goalscoring opportunities throughout the match.
In this tactical analysis of the match between Real Madrid and Juventus, the focus will mainly be centred around Juventus’ performance and game plan, and what lacks in their attacking phase to make them achieve better results in this kind of game.
Real Madrid Vs Juventus Lineups & Formations
Xabi Alonso started the match according to the 4-4-2 formation with Thibaut Courtois as a goalkeeper, and a defence made up of Federico Valverde as a right-back, Éder Militão and Raúl Asencio as centre-backs, and Álvaro Carreras as a left-back.
The midfield looked different from the previous games.
Alonso kept both Dani Ceballos and Franco Mastantuono on the bench and preferred to start with Aurélien Tchouaméni and Arda Güler as central midfielders and Brahim Díaz and Vinícius Júnior as wingers.
The attacking duo consisted of Jude Bellingham as a second striker and Kylian Mbappé as the main striker.
On the other hand, Igor Tudor preferred to rest a few key players and use them during the second half.
His plan was relatively successful, as players like Manuel Locatelli and Francisco Conceição were very impactful during that second period and helped Juventus a lot during the attacking transitions.
Tudor started the match using the 5-4-1 formation with Michele Di Gregorio as a goalkeeper, Federico Gatti, Daniele Rugani, and Lloyd Kelly as centre-backs, with both Pierre Kalulu and Andrea Cambiaso as wing-backs.
The midfield consisted of Teun Koopmeiners and Khéphren Thuram as central midfielders, and Weston McKennie and Kenan Yıldız as wingers.
The choice of McKennie on the right wing was made to guarantee more defensive work on a side where Júnior can be extremely dangerous, instead of starting with a more attacking option such as Conceição or Edon Zhegrova.
For the striker role, Tudor preferred to start with Dušan Vlahović before using Jonathan David and Loïs Openda instead of Vlahović and Yıldız.
[Real Madrid Vs Juventus [1-0] Champions League 2025/2026: Igor Tudor Counter-Attacking Plan And Attacking Weaknesses – Tactical Analysis](https://totalfootballanalysis.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Real-Madrid-Vs-Juventus-1-0-Champions-League-20252026-Igor-Tudor-Counter-Attacking-Plan-And-Attacking-Weaknesses-–-Tactical-Analysis-1.jpg)
Real Madrid Vs Juventus Formations
Juventus Dangerous Counterattacking System
Juventus started the match in the best possible way at the complicated Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and were capable of threatening Real Madrid from the initial minutes of the game.
However, they failed to build on their initial attempts and were obliged to defend with a low defensive block in order to better resist Real Madrid’s actions.
In fact,
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