Spartak Moskva 1 - 1 Sporting (CL)

GOAL SPORTING, 58th minute by Nani (right foot).
Assist by Liedson (right foot.)

Substitutions:

Alecsandro substitutes Miguel Garcia at the 46th minute.
Carlos Paredes substitutes Tonel at the 58th minute.
João Alves substitutes Yannick at the 82nd minute.

Bookings:

Miguel Veloso, Yellow Card.
Tonel, Yellow Card.

Observations:

1st Half:

By playing with 2 contention Full-backs like Caneira and Garcia we are obviously lacking depth through the wings to widen our attack and as such the ofensive responsibilities are falling solely on the midfield who is funneling our attack.
In order to field 2 contention FBs and still have attacking depth the team need's 3 aggresive midfielders to compensate the lack of pressing coming through the flanks.
Rodrigo Tello is a fine player for games played at a slow pace and less pressure from opposing midfielder but not in this game and we need somebody that pressures more, we need Nani and Moutinho and somebody else to go forward and let Miguel Veloso, Caneira and Garcia secure the defence.

With Full-backs that rarely cross the midfield line we are once again falling into the trap of bombing out long forward passes and abusing the aerial game when a technicist team such as ours should keep the ball on the ground where the class of our players can make the difference.
Another option would be to field a more aggresive FB and also replace Tello with a clearly defensive unit such as Carlos Paredes and in doing so the diamond will have 2 contention units in Veloso and Paredes and now Nani and JM28 will be able to go forward without fear of spreading themselves too thin.

Right now Moutinho isn't doing anything, he wants to attack but if we get caught on the counter he knows Tello can't assist Veloso properly but if Moutinho stays to help Tello and Veloso then Nani is left all alone in the front behind the strikers.
Adding Paredes will finally free up Moutinho plus with Paredes and Veloso in place we'll gain control of the midfield and get more ball possession which can then be fed to Moutinho, Nani, an attacking FB and the 2 forwards.

Essentially we will continue to attack with 3 units (N18, JM28 and a FB) which is the same as we are doing in the first half (with N18, JM28, RT11) but the difference is spreading out our attacking units to balance out the team's ofence while still adding steel to the center-midield to gain greater ball possession and shorten the distance between the 3 sectors by having Nani and Moutinho closer to the forwards and having Paredes and Veloso closer to the Back-4, in the first 45 the distance between sectors was abysmal.

I would switch Miguel Garcia (most of Spartak is coming from our right/their left) with Abel, Tello with Paredes and Yannick with Alecsandro. I know that nobody wants to hear this but you have no idea how much this team misses Custódio, we are playing box-to-box with Veloso and Moutinho (these players do no complement each other) unable to slow the pace ot their opponents in the central corridor.

Ball Possession at Half-Time: Spartak 56% - 44% Sporting.

2nd Half:

Alecsandro (Forward) repalces Miguel Garcia (Right-Back) and the players reposition themselves as Marco Caneira moves to Right-Back with Rodrigo Tello dropping back to Left-Back, Nani moves back to the midfield and with Alecsandro moving to the front Yannick now drops to behind the 2 strikers and the team effectively switches from 4-4-2 diamond to a 4-3-3 with a very compact forward trio. With Paredes replacing Tonel we see Miguel Veloso dropping back from DM to left sided Centre-Back.

At the 82nd minute mark with the entry of João Alves the team switches back again to 4-4-2 with a mdifield diamond but now with João Alves, Carlos Paredes and João Moutinho all providing defencive cover to the lower triangle of the diamond as Paulo Bento now abdicated from attacking and switched to a more combative XI that provided more tackling/marking ability in midfield and secured his team greater ball possession.

Ball Possession at Full-Time: Sporting 51% - Spartak 49%.

Champions League after 2 rounds:

Ricardo, 180 minutes.
Anderson Polga, 180 minutes.
Caneira, 180 minutes, 1 goal.
Miguel Veloso, 180 minutes, 1 YC.
João Moutinho, 180 minutes, 1 YC.
Liedson, 180 minutes, 1 assist, 1 YC.
Nani, 172 minutes, 1 Goal.
Yannick, 172 minutes.
Tonel, 148 minutes, 1 assist, 1 YC.
Rodrigo Tello, 98 minutes.
Abel, 90 minutes.
Alecsandro, 68 minutes.
Leandro Romagnoli, 66 minutes.
Miguel Garcia, 46 minutes.
Carlos Paredes, 32 minutes.
João Alves, 8 minutes



André