Alvaro Cervera: We wanted to attack the space behind Marcelo

Alvaro Cervera, Cadiz’s head coach, spoke to the press after his team lost 0 - 3 at home to Real Madrid on Wednesday night.

Our own Kiyan Sobhani asked Cervera about his team’s attack. The heat map showed that they funnelled almost all of their build-up on the right side, where Marcelo resided.

“Yes, that was the plan,” Cervera said when asked about attacking Marcelo’s side. “Marcelo leaves lots of space behind, and we wanted to take advantage of it when he presses high too”

Real Madrid were able to defend those attacks pretty comfortably, in part because Nacho’s coverage behind Nacho was great, but also became Marcelo himself had several good tackles. On the opposite side, Alvaro Odriozola and Eder Militao were not tested much.

“The game for half an hour was where we wanted,” Cervera continued. “They did not create much danger and neither did we, and in the 29th minute from a corner that we took, it ends in a penalty. And then it is 0-2 with another ball that we have and that’s where the game ends for us.“