A 3-1 win over Real Madrid avenged the league. In the seventh final of Harvey's solo coaching career, the winning percentage was still 100%.
Barca's extremely targeted defense on both wings blocked Real Madrid's advance on both wings. At the same time, Garvey, Pedri and De Jong took turns pulling back and inserting forward, opening holes in the Real Madrid defense.
Shooting 7-1 at half-time to take an early 3-0 lead, Real Madrid would have been even more embarrassed had it not been for Xavi's late substitution.
01. Tactical game: Xavi cleverly set up a formation to suppress Real Madrid's 2 wings
a. Xavi Chaobu squad: suppressing Real Madrid's 2 wingers
Barca's defensive deployment after the opening was very targeted, Araujo and Balder both suppressed each other in speed and strength, which seriously hindered Real Madrid's two wings.
At the same time, in the midfield position, Pedri and Garvey took turns pulling back and inserting forward, always guaranteeing the advantage of possession and the suddenness of the forward insertion. Lewandowski, who has been well rested, is also highly motivated to run, allowing Barca to achieve the best mobility in the front.
This time it was very typical, Araujo went up to grab Venicius, and even if the opponent turned flexibly, he was still broken by the Uruguayan.
In the ensuing offensive and defensive switch, Pedri pulled to the wing and Lewandowski retreated in tandem. Dembele chose to control the ball steadily, when he saw that the opportunity was not particularly good, but it was a new change.
Looking at this offensive and defensive round, it was still Araujo against Venicius who completed the break. Pedri and Dembele then guaranteed a strong possession advantage as they pushed forward.
Dembele played a very interesting game, not only with a strong breakthrough to create a Mendy yellow card, but also in the first half of the first half of the first half of the steady control of the ball in place, so that Real Madrid wanted to exert power but could not send it.
The most depressing of the game was Venicius, not only 0 shots on goal and 0 key passes, but also conceding 22 possessions in 58 touches (touch/goal rate close to 40%).
Not only on Venicius' side, but on the other side, Balder against Valverde, is also dominant in athleticism.
After all, Valverde is not known for attacking with the ball, the problem is that the main attacking left side is completely muted, and Real Madrid must also try to do more on the right side. But this time, Bard did not fall behind in speed and strength, firmly stuck in position.
b. Lack of strength on the wing: Benzema is going to pull it back and get the ball
It can also be clearly seen from the heat map that Barca's possession advantage in the midfield is very large, coupled with Real Madrid's inability to play the sharp advancement of the wing, it is impossible to interfere with and strike at Barca's ball control system.
What's more, when Real Madrid's two wings are unsuccessful, then center Benzema has to pull back to get the ball, and when Valverde goes to the winger position, there is no one in the middle of the midfield to insert back, so that Real Madrid's attack becomes paler.
It is typical for Benzema to retreat to the right to get the ball this time, and Real Madrid will choose to let Benzema come back when they are not advancing well to give Venicius a chance to run an open position.
While Araujo was still up front, Venihues was given a chance to play Conde singles. As a result, Busquets moved sideways in time to make up for it, successfully assisting the defense and breaking the ball, leaving the opponent without temper.
Real Madrid's only chance on goal in the half was also a weakness in Barca's squad.
After Araujo was dispatched, Conde was more conservative when defending the right wing, freeing up more space for crosses.
Balder once again exposed defensive awareness at the back post, clearly seeing that Benzema had more space, but his feet forward seemed to leave the penalty area.
When Conde was defending, his position was always soft, and this time he did not follow the opponent twice in a row.
(Including being overtaken by Rodrigo in the second half, and Conde's position choice as a right-back when he conceded the final goal, replicating the hilarious scene of the World Cup final)
Fortunately, Benzema's header was not of high quality when it was missed, deflecting off the right upright post of the Barca goal.
02. Tactical winners: The source is Busquets, and Garvey's vitality amplifies the advantage
a. 7-1 at half-time! It's easy for Barça to win
From the statistics, it can be seen that Barca not only took a 2-0 lead in the first half, but also had an absolute 7-1 advantage in the number of shots on goal.
Because Real Madrid can't threaten Barca in attack, in this way, the midfield advantage of the red and blue can be released, and Busquets' "coquettish smell" cannot be suppressed.
Barca's possession advantage comes from Sergio Busquets and Pedri (and Dembele's credit), Garvey and De Jong are interspersed with space, while Lewandowski's physical form is excellent and his range of movement is large, and Real Madrid are a bit unable to keep up.
This time after Carvajal was pinned down by Lewandowski, Garvey stepped forward to make Modric unable to react.
Sergio Busquets and Pedri have a good passing rhythm, and Garvey is taking advantage of Lewandowski's position and the passing accuracy of his team-mates to get a chance to cut into the box.
Lewandowski, who ran back, responded to Garvey's return pass and fired a high-quality long-range shot. Despite being blocked by the goalpost, it was Barca player Balde who followed up with a supplementary shot, but unfortunately a kick flew away.
b. Busquets' milestone night: More than just 2 goals
Just when Real Madrid thought they had stabilized their ground and could slowly breathe a sigh of relief during Barca's interspersed attack, Sergio Busquets suddenly pressed forward and pressed Camavinga in a successful high post to break the deadlock.
Sergio Busquets' break was beautiful, Pedri straight to Lewandowski is key, the combination of Busquets and Pedri allows Barca's attack to always win in rhythm and space conversion.
What Lewandowski then had to do was simpler, assisting Gavi, who cut in to the box and scored calmly to give Barca the lead.
After conceding the goal, Real Madrid's overall formation began to press forward, which also gave Barca more opportunities to counterattack.
This time, Pedri took the ball and brought it all the way to the heart of Real Madrid, posing a great threat, but unfortunately the ball was not successful. However, the Barca team counterattacked, and Militão took a few steps forward and could only give up acceleration and lost the opportunity to counterattack.
Of Barca's four midfielders in this game, Sergio Busquets was the best defensively, contributing five tackles and one sapass.
Junior Garvey also handed in a report card of 3 steals and 1 interception.
Barca's second goal, Sergio Busquets' pass was still very crucial, which opened up the situation.
De Jong tackles Gavi, who goes straight into the box and all he has to do is cross to find the unguarded Lewandowski in front of goal to extend the lead to 2-0.
After this match, Busquets tied with Messi and Ramos for the first national derby appearances, while equalling Hento to become the first national derby winner with 21 wins.
In addition, this time the Western Super League Cup trophy was lifted, and it was also the first time that Sergio Busquets helped the team win the title after becoming captain.
03. In the second half, Barca tried to fight back: the striker still had less flavor
a. Barca tried to fight back in the second half: Xavi's squad had less flavor
In the second half, Barca tried more counter-attacking play. The overall movement of the team was simple and efficient, but there was still a lack of arrows in the counterattack, which affected the quality.
The one who has speed in Barca's attacking line is Dembele, but his shooting skills are always unsatisfactory.
This time Balde broke the ball strongly and pushed the ball forward, and Dembele missed the opportunity to score directly against the goalkeeper.
One area of improvement in Dembele was his header. Whether it's the World Cup knockout rounds or at Barca, he has some good headers.
It's a pity that Lewandowski didn't have speed, and this time he couldn't get the ball under a large space.
Lewandowski's best fit was to counter-attack him to pass the ball to his midfield teammates who were plugged in behind.
Dembele's move inside also pinned down the defensive attention of the opposing post, allowing Pedri to gain space.
At one point, they built up a 3-0 lead, and Barca's double golden boy shined, especially Garvey's one-shot and two-pass to become the top winner of the night.
b. Harvey happily wins the final 7 in a row: never lost
The victory in this game is also Harvey's new masterpiece. Not only did he suppress the opponent's two wings, Modric only touched the ball 37 times in the game, and it is not surprising that Real Madrid lost.
It is worth mentioning that Xavi's coaching career has a 100% winning rate in finals. At Al Sadd Doha, Xavi won seven titles, including six finals.
Arriving at Barça and reaching the final for the first time, Xavi continued his magical record.
Conclusion:
If there is a deficiency in this Barça team, it is that after Araujo went to the wing, the central defender's front top ability is still weak, while the left-back defense also has certain holes, and finally the speed element of the counterattack is missing on the striker.
If it can be further strengthened in these aspects in the future, the combat effectiveness of this Barça can still be expected. Xavi is not a bad coach and, like this Barca team, he is growing.