Reece James, a standout for Chelsea, had a difficult night on Wednesday at the Santiago Bernabeu as he had to mark Real Madrid's Vinicius Jr. James played right-back in the weekend loss to Wolves, but Frank Lampard decided to go with a back five in the Champions League quarterfinal to counter Carlo Ancelotti's team's attacking threat.
If Vinicius Jr.'s threat was the reason Lampard chose to use a back five, he responded, "Partly the reason," following the game. "I believe I had other factors to take into account. Any team would have a lot of trouble versus Vinicius one-on-one, so we wanted to set up two-against-ones on that side of the field. Fofana's early dismissal with a yellow card didn't help.
The Brazilian winger can nearly entirely stop his forward motion before continuing at a terrifying velocity. James and Fofana were both responsible for stepping into his trap halfway through the second half, with the latter being avoided far too easily after Vinicius had very simply gotten away from James.

Comments
Post a Comment