your favourite 'tactical' victories of all-time?

The Inter 1-0 loss at Camp Nou was great but honestly the 3-1 win at San Diego was more impressive

That Inter Barca game instantly sprang to mind.

I reckon most replies here will be defensively tactical victories.

Slippy G

Inter Barca game was the best tactical victory/coaching done in a game of football.

Unreal how elite Jose was in his prime. Second to almost none tactically.

For me it was Chelsea-Atlético, Simeone vs Mourinho. One of the few games where both coaches were actively and visibly trying to alter the games live.

United vs. AC Milan 2010.

Fergie knew the kind of danger that Andrea Pirlo was able to deliver if left unmarked. So he sent Ji-Sung Park to follow Pirlo everywhere on both legs, and Pirlo was completely invisible as Park was always in his face. We ended up slaughtering AC Milan 4-0 at home and 7-2 on aggregate, with Park scoring a goal to cap the second leg.

United Barca 2008

Rio was a colossus.

Bubz27 said:

That Inter Barca game instantly sprang to mind.

I reckon most replies here will be defensively tactical victories.

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It's an English forum, of course

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Inter vs Barcelona

Some that come to mind that aren't "Put 11 men behind the ball and pray" are.

Capello's Milan vs Barca 93/94 final. Barca were hugely fancied and Capello annihalated them.
Van Gaals Ajax vs Milan the very next season.
Pep's Barca vs United in 2011 although favourites Barca dominated a Sir Alex side like nothing I'd ever seen to that point.
Madrid vs Pep's Bayern: Hammering away in Germany.

I have no idea why those park the bus and pray tactics are seen as more tactical than when playing real football.

Perhaps the most famous of all time: Milan - Real Madrid 5-0

Liverpool 0-2 Chelsea in 2014 was pretty satisfying.

It was basically a mish mash line up of fringe players, and players in the wrong positions. Ashley Cole and Mikel were the two CB's

40 year old Schwarzer in goal, Kalas, a CB, in midfield. It was crazy.

It was an important game for Liverpool, and we were basically out of the title race by then and we had a CL semi a few days later so we rested nearly all our starters.

We were gifted a goal in the first half via one of the best moments in PL history and from that point we parked the bus, comfortably seeing the game out.

Utd v Chelsea under Jose.

Herrera man-marked Hazard completely out of the game when Hazard was in his prime. That was the biggest key to winning the game.

Pep v Tuchel in the Champions League final.

WeePat said:

Liverpool 0-2 Chelsea in 2014 was pretty satisfying.

It was basically a mish mash line up of fringe players, and players in the wrong positions. Ashley Cole and Mikel were the two CB's

40 year old Schwarzer in goal, Kalas, a CB, in midfield. It was crazy.

It was an important game for Liverpool, and we were basically out of the title race by then and we had a CL semi a few days later so we rested nearly all our starters.

We were gifted a goal in the first half via one of the best moments in PL history and from that point we parked the bus, comfortably seeing the game out.

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Mourinho had been planning for that game so intensely that he came to Anfield not having showered that whole week.

I would have always had a soft spot for him because of that game, but then he became our manager.

little.triangles said:

Mourinho had been planning for that game so intensely that he came to Anfield not having showered that whole week.

I would have always had a soft spot for him because of that game, but then he became our manager.

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As long as he isn't managing a rival club, Mourinho will always be a manager close to my heart.

Not a tactical victory only, but France vs Brazil in WC 2006 was great.

Brazil was favorite to win the WC, and France barely scrapped out of group stage.

Brazil didn't have a single shot on goal in 90 minutes, Brazil midfield got destroyed by Zidane Makelele, and Vieira.

WeePat said:

As long as he isn't managing a rival club, Mourinho will always be a manager close to my heart.

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Can totally understand that. The version United got was much diminished, but 04-06 Jose was downright scary for fans of other clubs. He had that deadly combination of charisma and tactical brilliance, and he knew he could get away with a lot of things such as substituting Joe Cole in the first half of a game. I really thought he was going to build a multi-decade dynasty at Chelsea, but fortunately Fergie had other ideas.

padr81 said:

Some that come to mind that aren't "Put 11 men behind the ball and pray" are.

Capello's Milan vs Barca 93/94 final. Barca were hugely fancied and Capello annihalated them.
Van Gaals Ajax vs Milan the very next season.
Pep's Barca vs United in 2011 although favourites Barca dominated a Sir Alex side like nothing I'd ever seen to that point.
Madrid vs Pep's Bayern: Hammering away in Germany.

I have no idea why those park the bus and pray tactics are seen as more tactical than when playing real football.

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English forum

The Arsenal FA cup tie which we won despite fielding a midfield of Rafael, O’Shea, Gibson and Fabio.

Barca vs Madrid during Pep vs Jose time was great battle tactically, awesome possession team vs brilliant counter attacking team.

Honestly have no idea why Dortmund’s and especially Bayern’s wins over Real and Barca in the ‘13 CL semis never get proper love or attention on this forum.

Milan 4-Barca 0 1994 CL Final

Dynamo Kyiv's CL games from 97-98 to 99/00 have quite a few tactical triumphs over stronger squads. Arsenal, Real Madrid and Bayern in mutiple games were outclassed tactically, and really struggled to impose their clearly superior squads. Only Lippi with Juventus seemed to solve how best to use a stronger 11 against them.

The two tactical destructions of Van Gaal, at a time Louis was being massively hyped (rightly so, too) as the new evolution in total football/pressing/universalism were probably the most impressive. Lobanovsky's ideas were always similar to the Dutch total football ideal, and this was the big new star of that school of thought vs an aging manager with 30 years in the game, someone who in comparison was supposed to represent an older, less effective prototype.

It was that era that first really convinced me what a great manager lobanovsky was, as his 70s and 80s teams, while innovative and often easy on the eye, had a few too many blundering results against teams they looked stronger than.

March 9 2020

27% ball possession. 3 ATB.

United 2-0 City.

Peak Oleball.

Mourinho winning the Europa League vs Ajax with us.

Remember a league game where Chelsea won away to City 1-0 in 2014. Everyone was expecting a Jose masterclass and it was crazy how every Chelsea player knew the plan and how to execute it.

Mourinho scumming his way to European cups with Porto. Never has diving and play acting been so crucial to a teams success.

Pat_Mustard said:

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Fergie: "I want you to press Pirlo on touch".

Park: "Yes".

Glorious stuff

I have to say Inter Milan against Barca in the semi final at the Nou Camp. Down to ten men as well for two thirds of the match.

United v Roma - 7 -1 was a tactical masterclass in attacking displays.

I still look at that result as the one which made the team believe that they can win something. Ronaldo's first CL goals, Carrick announcing himself, Park, Rooney and Alan Smith.

I don't know if this counts but City Vs Liverpool at the Etihad in January 2019 was an insane game. I've never seen such intensity and two teams who were so well matched up against one another

Utd Barca 08? Scholes belter, defensive master class. Limited peak barca to limited opportunities. Perfectly executed game plan over 2 legs.

padr81 said:

Some that come to mind that aren't "Put 11 men behind the ball and pray" are.

Capello's Milan vs Barca 93/94 final. Barca were hugely fancied and Capello annihalated them.
Van Gaals Ajax vs Milan the very next season.
Pep's Barca vs United in 2011 although favourites Barca dominated a Sir Alex side like nothing I'd ever seen to that point.
Madrid vs Pep's Bayern: Hammering away in Germany.

I have no idea why those park the bus and pray tactics are seen as more tactical than when playing real football.

Click to expand...

United were man for man a much weaker team. The 5-0 against Madrid that year was more incredible - Madrid after two years of massive spending, weren't that far off talent wise (Ronaldo, Benzema, Alonso, Ozil, Di Maria were added since they got beat 6-2 in 2009). Even after that type of recruitment, they couldn't get near them.

that away 0-0 draw vs Inter. even with some big players injured or simply frozen by Fergue (Vidic, Tevez, Nani), they were outplayed and United looked so good that night that draw almost felt like a loss for me.

same season in CL, counter attacking lesson vs Arsenal in semifinal.

Skills said:

I don't know if this counts but City Vs Liverpool at the Etihad in January 2019 was an insane game. I've never seen such intensity and two teams who were so well matched up against one another

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Absolutely brilliant game. Both sides going for it.

Inter's win at the Nou Camp is one of my favourite non-United games ever! Hardly a tactical masterclass, but certainly a wholly unified team committed to the tactics (defend as deep as possible, don't venture forwards at all).

It's harder to pick individual games won by tactical innovation/variation, as usually teams have a set tactical approach, or a couple of frequent tactical approaches they use - so I don't really consider those wins as 'tactical' victories, it's just the team playing as they usually play, which may involve a strategic superiority. Teams like City, Barca, Bayern (under Pep especially), Klopp's Liverpool have had plenty of dominant wins due to their tactical superiority, but these wins are often just one of many identical performances.

Looking at SAF, the games that come to mind would be games a player was moved position to do a job - Fletcher once played LW against Spurs away and completely shut down their right flank. A comparatively young Giggs being picked in CM ahead of in form Carrick and Scholes against Chelsea, when Giggs hadn't played CM very much at that stage, because SAF thought Chelsea's midfield wouldn't cope with Giggs running with the ball through the centre. The CL final victory, Ronaldo moved to the left to target make shift RB Essien, with Hargreaves on the right and dropping infield to combat Chelsea's midfield 3. However these weren't exactly one offs, those players played those roles numerous times, and it was often dictated by necessity such as injury, form, to hamper an obviously dangerous opposition player or target an opposition's obvious weakness.