Europa Conference League stats: Alternative stars of the semi-final second legs
Friday, May 6, 2022
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Who made the most saves, crosses, clearances, ball recoveries and completed passes in the UEFA Europa Conference League semi-final second legs?
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UEFA.com has a treasure trove of statistics to highlight the players starring in the UEFA Europa Conference League, Europe's newest club competition.
In this piece, presented by Swissquote, we sift through the data to see who earned top billing across a number of match-defining metrics in the semi-final second legs.
Most passes completed
82 Wesley Fofana (Leicester)
74 William Saliba (Marseille)
71 Boubacar Kamara (Marseille)
56 Valentin Rongier (Marseille)
55 James Maddison (Leicester)
Fofana was fifth in the rankings last week but surged to the top with an all-action performance in Rome, with 82 or his 87 attempted passes (an impressive 94%) finding their target. William Saliba's completion rate was slightly lower (89%) after he topped this metric for the first legs.
Crosses completed
5 Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma)
2 Cengiz Ünder (Marseille)
2 Gerson (Marseille)
Roma captain Pellegrini delivered the corner from which Tammy Abraham scored his side's winner against Leicester, and supplied incisive crosses throughout the game. Marseille's Dimitri Payet was the top cross man last week, but was forced off injured 33 minutes into his side's 0-0 draw against Feyenoord.
Balls recovered
11 Boubacar Kamara (Marseille)
11 Wesley Fofana (Leicester)
8 Fredrik Aursnes (Feyenoord)
8 Luan Peres (Marseille)
8 Marcos Senesi (Feyenoord)
Fighting to overhaul a 3-2 deficit from the first leg, Marseille showed plenty of energy in build-up play, Kamara and Luan Peres both doing their bit to deny Feyenoord chances on the counter. Creating meaningful openings at the other end was more of an issue.
Clearances
10 Chris Smalling (Roma)
7 Gernot Trauner (Feyenoord)
5 Gianluca Mancini (Roma)
Smalling was top of the clearances rankings with 12 last week, and while he was kept a little less busy as the action switched to the Stadio Olimpico, he still excelled himself. Trauner was similarly attentive for Feyenoord, and came close to scoring a screamer from distance too.
Most saves
3 Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester)
3 Ofir Marciano (Feyenoord)
2 Steve Mandanda (Marseille)
2 Rui Patrício (Roma)
Schmeichel made a great save from Pellegrino but had no chance when it came to Tammy Abraham's goal. Rui Patrício did not have a single save to make in last week's first leg, but was kept rather busier on Thursday. Ofir Marciano and Steve Mandanda made largely routine interventions in their sides' 0-0 draw.
