Xavi got his 1st half tactics right, a solid 3 - box - 3 with Cancelo pinning down Mendy, Balde dragging Valverde wide and Felix dragging Carvajal out of position, Kroos had to deal with all the high press and also defend large amount of space. Bellingham and Tchouameni were always high up trying to mark Gundogan and Gavi without much success as Barcelona always had numerical advantage during build up and even in the final third.

Defensively Xavi was very spot on too. Barca went to back 5 with two holding midfielders in front of them. Vinicius and Carvajal could have all the space in the wide areas but the 3 CBs in the center literally had nobody to deal with. Bellingham was very tightly marked by Gavi for the entire first half and majority of the second half and Vinicius didn’t do much against Araujo either.

But the only thing Xavi didn’t plan for was the long game. No team can keep up that amount of high press and constant running for 90 mins. Not to mention most of Barca was in the bench. Although Kroos lost possession and didn’t do much in the first half, it can be said that it was a tactical choice to start Kroos instead of Camavinga or probably Modric. Ancelotti might not be on par with young more tactically advanced managers but his greatest strength is his knowledge of players and how to use them in the perfect position and perfect time of the match. Kroos is excellent when it comes to soaking up the pressure, sure camavinga can do that too but Kroos has proven it over the years and in a game like this Ancelotti chose the veteran in that duty. Real Madrid baited most of the press, made Barcelona run hard and by the 60th minute they were out of their energy.

Sure the story could have been a lot different if Barca would have scored 2-3 goals in the first half. All this press baiting and soaking up pressure wouldn’t have done anything then but that’s the risk you have to take and Ancelotti did take the risk. Once they were tired and Bellingham found the goal Ancelotti gave the license to Modric to use the space to his advantage and who can do it better than Luka !

At the end Bellingham was inevitable. He is a very skilled player with very good sense of positioning (watch his run for the second goal) but his greatest asset is his willpower. He didn’t actually have a very good game until his first goal, the congested central zone and Gavi’s tight marking didn’t let Bellingham have his usual game but he knew what was needed and he never gave up.

Another big factor is Romeu. I don’t know why Gavi was subbed, he had an excellent match but Romeu kept making mistakes, he failed to track the run of Modric multiple times and Barca payed for it.