UEFA Women's Champions League Performance Insight: Stanway the key to Bayern unlocking Arsenal's high press

Bayern München will travel to London next week for the second leg of their UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-final against Arsenal with a 1-0 advantage.

Yet as this tactical analysis by the UEFA Technical Observer Panel shows, there were reasons for both sides to draw encouragement from Tuesday's closely-contested first leg in Munich.

Goals

1-0: Lea Schüller (39)

Schüller had a part in the goal's creation as well as its conversion. Collecting a pass inside from Georgia Stanway, she span away from Arsenal centre-back Leah Williamson and spread the ball out wide to full-back Maximiliane Rall. She then found the right position at the far post to rise above Laura Wienroither and nod the ball into the corner for her second goal of this European campaign.

Player of the Match: Lea Schüller

"She scored the goal that gave Bayern victory and was a persistent threat to Arsenal." This was the verdict of the UEFA match observer on a highly significant contribution from the 25-year-old who, on top of her winning strike, later produced a goal-line clearance to foil Williamson.

Bayern coach Alexander Straus said of the match-winner: "Since last summer she's become a different player, a more complete player. She's always been a goalscorer but now she's more involved, has more touches and more aspects to her game than before. Lea has the potential to be one of the best in the world in her position as a No9."

Team formations

Bayern

Bayern's line-up was unchanged from their 5-0 victory over Köln four days earlier and they set up in a 1-4-2-3-1 structure in which one of their two defensive midfielders, Stanway (31), had a key role in building play from the back – as highlighted in the video analysis above and the Features section below.

Without the ball, their shape morphed into a 1-4-4-2 with Magull (16) pressing alongside Schüller (11). In the second half, they defended increasingly in a lower block, with Magull dropping to ensure nine outfield players behind the ball.

Arsenal

If their starting formation was a 1-4-3-3, Arsenal's shape during the match could be better defined as a 1-4-2-3-1 with captain Kim Little (10) and Lia Wälti (13) in defensive midfield roles and Frida Maanum (12) playing ahead of them. The midfield worked hard – and effectively – at winning the ball back, Little ending the evening with the game's highest number of ball recoveries (12).

Features

Bayern ended the first leg with a slender lead but the UEFA match observer noted that they did not have things their own way in a match in which Arsenal's high press caused them problems along with a strong individual showing by the visitors' Australia forward, Caitlin Foord.

The video analysis above begins with two clips which illustrate Foord's attacking threat as she comes in from the wing and aims a shot against the far post in Clip 1 and then, in Clip 2, worms her way into space between the lines before unleashing another goal attempt.

Overall, Foord made 25 passes in the attacking third – eight more than anyone else on the field in Munich and a total surpassed in this week's matches only by Barcelona's Patri Guijarro and Salma Paralluelo. The statistics underline her involvement: eight take-ons with an 87.5% success rate and seven crosses from open play, three of them completed (one of which gave a clear scoring opportunity to Stina Blackstenius).

The other feature of Arsenal's play that the UEFA Technical Observer Panel wished to highlight was their pressing game which enabled them to win the ball back and create chances.

In Clip 3 we see them press high up the pitch as Bayern look to build from the back, shutting down the passing lanes and forcing a turnover which leads to a scoring opportunity. Clip 4 offers another example as Bayern are crowded out as they look to advance down their right flank, and Arsenal swiftly create another chance after neat combination play on the opposite side of the field.

Arsenal, in the words of the match observer, produced "good pressure to get the ball back, which allowed them to dominate and play in the opposition half". To illustrate the point, Jonas Eidevall's team ranked second this week, behind Barcelona, for most passes in opposition territory (291). As for the end product, Arsenal had 25 shots, 12 of them blocked. And with twice as many shots on target as Bayern – six to their hosts' three – they ended the game with an xG of 2.19 compared to 1.15 for the Bavarians.

From a Bayern perspective, the player who really caught the match observer's eye was England midfielder Stanway. Clip 5 shows her offer passing options to her goalkeeper and centre-backs as they build play; she then takes responsibility on the ball as she tries to progress it up the pitch. In Clip 6, Stanway drops back into the defensive line herself and then displays once more her positivity on the ball – witness the forward pass into the feet of Lina Magull, which the Bayern skipper flicks on to set up a chance for Schüller.

Stanway was central to Bayern's efforts to beat the press with through-balls and switches of play and she ended the evening with the most touches (86) of any player on the pitch. Moreover, all seven of her passes in the final third found a team-mate.

As a general point on Bayern's passing, the observer used the word "verticality" to describe their quick, incisive passing through the Arsenal lines. The Arsenal centre-backs had difficulty at times in defending this more direct approach and Clips 7 and 8 offer examples – the latter in particular, which shows a sweeping Bayern move from the edge of their own penalty area to the edge of Arsenal's five-metre box and an opportunity for full-back Rall.

The final tactical point featured in the video is the way Bayern looked to their full-backs to get forward on the wing and deliver crosses, while simultaneously getting numbers into the box. We see this in Clips 9 and 10 and both times it is Schüller who feeds the ball out wide to Rall, the right-back, before getting into the box.

The first time Bayern go close and the second time they get their reward. After a group stage in which the average number of attacking players in the penalty box for crosses was three, it is worth pointing out that there are four Bayern players in the Arsenal box on both occasions.

Incidentally, while Schüller's winning goal was a far-post header, Arsenal won more aerial duels (60%) and, to quote the observer, "generated danger from their set pieces". In the group stage they scored three times from set plays and they would have added to that number but for goal-line clearances from Saki Kumagai and Schüller. Fine margins, as they say.

Coaches' assessments

Alexander Straus, Bayern coach: "I think we were a little bit better in the first half. We created good chances – we could have had the same start we had against Barcelona with two early goals. We had control in the first half and created the most but in the second half Arsenal were the better team, we struggled and they created more chances.

"We gave away the ball a little bit too easily in the second half so made it harder for ourselves but when you see the players saving on the line, throwing themselves in front of [shots] to stop the goal against, that is the mentality we are about. It is just as beautiful as a great goal."

Jonas Eidevall, Arsenal coach: "I don't think the result reflects the performance. We created a lot of goalscoring opportunities. [At half-time] we spoke about how we play with angles of pressure, how we play out from their pressure, our decision-making. That led to us creating more chances."

Under the microscope

The UEFA analysis team will be providing further articles as the competition unfolds between now and the end of the season.

Atle Rosseland, the team leader for performance analysis in UEFA's football department, said: "We will be doing our best to identify tactical trends in the Women's Champions League and collect insights which hopefully can help the national associations across the European football landscape.

"We are in a fortunate position to have an excellent team of technical observers who can work in conjunction with the performance analysis department at UEFA to achieve this."