UEFA Europa League Performance Insights: Porto and Roma's key men
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
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UEFA Technical Observer Rui Faria shines a light on key player contributions from the Europa League play-off first-leg draw in Portugal.
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With the tendency for one vs ones across the pitch increasingly apparent in elite football, the ability of players to pick a key pass is ever more vital. For UEFA's analysis unit, last week's Europa League knockout phase play-off contest between Porto and Roma offered an excellent example, underlining the need for teams to find ways to break the one vs one press.
Working together with UEFA's analysts, Rui Faria, the UEFA Technical Observer says: "It's important that defenders are comfortable with the ball and understand risk-taking, especially under pressure. An important quality is the ability to look forward and find players between lines to progress.”
Faria's point is illustrated in video one, and in the first clip we see Porto's Otávio do just that. He puts his head up and assesses options in front. Clever movement in front is essential – as noted in this analysis the day after Thursday’s first-leg game – and it comes here from winger Rodrigo Mora, who drops in between the lines to attract Roma centre-back Zeki Çelik and enable wing-back Francisco Moura to run into the space created behind. That pair combining well allows the space for Otávio to hit an excellent, accurate ball down the left.
"Connections between players demand the correct use of space and time," observes Faria. "If the player has different passing options then he can try to create moments of superiority. One is where attacking players drop between lines, with the free spaces giving clear options for a pass. These movements create instability in the opposition defensive line by attracting defenders with them."
Roma defender Çelik provides a similar example in clip two. Before he receives the ball, he finds space by moving away from opponents. When the ball comes to Çelik, he looks up, sees Alexis Saelemakers and duly delivers a ball with his second touch to the wing-back who has already started his run beyond his man and into the space where Çelik’s ball will land. Porto's line is briefly broken, giving Roma a goalscoring opportunity.
Çelik had reason to be satisfied with an attacking contribution that went beyond scoring the visitors' goal. He was joint-second for line-breaking passes in the game (9) and also had the second-highest total number of player bypasses with passes (47). In the process, the Turkish international highlighted again the importance for a central defender to have a good passing range, as witnessed last week with Bayern München’s Dayot Upamecano.
"I am happy because I scored today and defensively I played well," said Çelik after the game. "I helped the team: this is important. It's a long time since I scored."
Between the lines
The other aspect of this analysis is movement. As we see in the opening clip of this second video, Roma coach Claudio Ranieri used Tommaso Baldanzi to try to create superiority with his positioning and movement. It is evident how Baldanzi moves between the lines of Porto's midfield and defence, always trying to get into space to receive the ball. We note in the clip that he takes advantage of his centre-forward, Artem Dovbyk, occupying a defender; with the centre-back not able to step out to press him, this increases the space for Baldanzi.
Moreover, with his movement away from defenders and into space, Baldanzi invites the forward pass and after receiving the ball he immediately carries it forward, leading to a crossing opportunity. Tellingly, despite entering the action in the 39th minute, the Roma substitute ended the game joint-second for receiving the ball between the lines (7).
"Constant running behind helps stretch defensive blocks," says Faria. "Blocks that are compact make opponents' ball progression difficult, that's why players try to run behind them."
In our initial analysis of this match we emphasised the individual work of Porto centre-forward Samu, who was pinning defenders, holding the ball up and linking up with team-mates.
Yet, as this graphic illustrates, front players also have a job to do by stretching defences with their runs in behind and Samu did this well alongside wide attacker Gonçalo Borges and wing-back Francisco Moura. Indeed, no player made more runs in behind Roma's defence than Samu (with 18). Roma's Dovbyk made 16 runs, though the chart shows that three of the top four were from Porto, with Francisco Moura's runs from the left featured in the first video above.
As Rui Faria concludes, this is a crucial attacking feature for teams today: "Running behind is a fundamental option to use free space behind the defensive line and a way to release pressure from the back."
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