After being tightly marked by Atletico Madrid, Yang Yang expanded his range of movement and actively pulled at their defensive line.
Atletico Madrid's defense was practically an impregnable fortress, with an Italian-style reinforced-concrete toughness. They looked remarkably similar to the Juventus side Yang Yang had faced during his time at Ajax. But the Yang Yang of today was no longer the Yang Yang of back then.
Whether in individual ability, football intelligence, or match experience, Yang Yang was far superior to his former self.
He kept pulling at the defense and making aggressive runs while constantly observing the situation and thinking about how to break through.
Real Madrid passed the ball back and forth around Atletico Madrid's thirty-meter area, yet they still could not find an effective way to pass it to the edge of the penalty area.
This was Simeone's strategy. He knew perfectly well that with Real Madrid's players' individual abilities, getting the ball at the edge of the penalty area would be extremely dangerous.
Atletico Madrid had adopted a 4-2-3-1 this match, or more strictly speaking, a 4-5-1 formation.
Courtois was in goal. The back line consisted of Filipe, Godín, Miranda, and Juanfran. On the left side of midfield was Turan, with Mario Suarez and Gabi sitting deeper in the middle, Raul Garcia centrally, Koke on the right, and Diego Costa as the lone striker.
It could be said that Simeone had built an impregnable fortress in front of his goal with this iron-blooded lineup, making it difficult for Real Madrid to find an opening. This same lineup had also helped them hold Barcelona to a scoreless draw.
Atletico Madrid had even been one of the best-performing teams in the Champions League Group Stage that season, advancing as group winners after conceding only three goals in six