In the Zone: Milan 0-0 Newcastle performance analysis

Newcastle United's first match in the UEFA Champions League after a 20-year absence ended with a hard-earned point at AC Milan.

In this article brought to you by FedEx, the UEFA Technical Observer Panel assess the attacking efforts of a Milan side which ended this Group F fixture with 25 shots – a total bettered only by Manchester City on Tuesday – but could not find a way past goalkeeper Nick Pope, whose tally of eight saves was the second-highest number on the group stage's opening night.

Player of the Match: Rafael Leão

According to UEFA's match observer, Milan's Portugal forward "was a constant threat all game – quick, strong, showing good movement and proving a real danger in the box". He was successful with three of five take-ons but, fortunately for Newcastle, could not apply the finishing touch in two excellent scoring situations. "He's a player that lovers of football like," reflected Milan coach Stefano Pioli. "He tries things that are not normal."

Formations

Milan

After their 5-1 derby loss to Inter at the weekend, Pioli made three changes, including giving a full debut to Samuel Chukwueze on the right side of their front three.

Newcastle

For his first match as a coach in the Champions League, Eddie Howe selected five players equally new to the competition in Pope, Dan Burn, Sean Longstaff, Anthony Gordon and Jacob Murphy.

Features

Newcastle look to the wings

"We know we can do better with the ball," said Howe of a contest in which his side did not produce a shot on target until the 95th minute. According to the UEFA observer, there were positive signs from their wide attackers as Newcastle sought to get behind the home defence via the width and pace of Gordon and Murphy.

The first two clips of the video below show Murphy trying to get on the end of balls from his own half from Fabian Schär and Bruno Guimarães – with a heatmap used in Clip 2 to show where Murphy’s movement took him most often during his 63 minutes on the field. In the third clip, Newcastle look to the pace and directness of Gordon, who ended the night among the top ten players for average carry distance (9.5m).

Milan progressing the ball

Last season's semi-finalists impressed the UEFA observer with some of their attacking work in a game in which they recorded an xG total of 1.99 compared to Newcastle's 0.28. They managed to find pockets of space in the first half, as illustrated in the video below – beginning with Ruben Loftus-Cheek collecting a pass into the attacking third from Malick Thiaw and driving into the box.

If Milan were unable to sustain their intense attacking waves of the first half, they still had their moments in the second, and Clips 2 and 3 show shooting opportunities for substitutes Alessandro Florenzi and Tijjani Reijnders after incisive, line-breaking passes by midfielder Rade Krunić. The Bosnia and Herzegovina international recorded an 89.6% pass accuracy – 87.5% in the final third – and his total of seven key passes was matched only by Man City's Julián Álvarez.

Milan's counterattacking threat

"Milan attacked well, especially on the counterattack and had all the best chances," said the match observer, and there was no better example of their counterattacking play than the first clip in the video below, which follows a free-kick into their box.

The sequence ends with Murphy stopping Tommaso Pobega's shot near the goal line – one of seven shots that Newcastle players blocked – yet it is Rafael Leão who stands out. First, he collects the ball on his chest and flicks it on in the centre of the field, and then he gets on the end of a Theo Hernández pass into the box, evading three Newcastle players only to lose his footing in front of goal.

The second example follows a typically adventurous surge by Hernández and concludes with a headed opportunity for Chukwueze. If Howe felt Newcastle "were a little bit loose in our defending in the first half", when Milan had seven of their nine attempts on goal, the visitors were more solid on defensive transitions in the second period.

Coach assessments

Stefano Pioli, Milan coach: "[Newcastle] are usually very aggressive. We probably took away some pressure by moving the ball well and making them move. We played the game we wanted to play. They are matches you should win, but we couldn't finish off situations we could have exploited differently. I am sorry for the lads – they gave everything they had and more."

Eddie Howe, Newcastle manager: "We defended our 18-yard box superbly. Look how many blocked shots [there were], how many times we threw ourselves in front of the ball. We were determined to defend our goal.

"The mindset was the most important thing – the blocking of shots and recovery sprints when we were caught out of position were all out of the top drawer, especially in that second half when it needed to be. We had our moments. Transitions going the other way was probably where the quality tonight was missing and I'm a little bit frustrated with that, but we'll look to improve. You can't underestimate the difficulty of coming here: the emotion of the game, new experiences. We had to take a lot on board today."