UEFA Champions League technical talking points

UEFA's Technical Observers have put together their key takeaways from the UEFA Champions League season – including the significance of scoring first and a continuing goalkeeping evolution – in advance of the full report.

First goal counts

Getting the first goal in the UEFA Champions League goes a long way to securing a positive result. Of the 117 games in 2022/23 featuring one or more goal, the team who scored first earned at least a draw in 90% of them. In 88 matches, they went on to win.

Observer Packie Bonner said the first goal held an important psychological component: "It gives the team confidence and the players are freer then to go and play their game." From an opposition perspective, by contrast, they must often adjust their plan and can become vulnerable as they open up in pursuit of an equaliser.

Goalkeeping

The evolution of the goalkeeper goes on with Inter’s André Onana less a sweeper-keeper than a holding midfielder at times according to Roberto Martínez as he reflected on the Cameroonian’s impressive passing range. Goalkeepers are increasingly taking higher positions as they help make the play and Onana embodied this shift in the final – one of five matches in Inter’s campaign in which he completed 30 or more passes.

One pass in the final summed up his impact as he drove the ball low to Lautaro Martínez in the opposition half, taking out six City players to help create a Romelu Lukaku chance.

Shape-shifting

A regular theme was defensive midfielders dropping between centre-backs and full-backs stepping into midfield, and the theme of fluidity gained a fresh variation thanks to Pep Guardiola’s deployment of John Stones as a midfielder, the centre-back stepping up alongside Rodri when City had possession and their shape shifting to a 1-3-2-4-1.

UEFA observer David Adams reflected: "There’s a lot more interchange of positions and the purpose is to create a numerical superiority either in the defensive line to build or in the mid-line where you are trying to get the ball into the final third."