UEFA Women's Champions League Performance Insight: How Chelsea stood firm to nullify Lyon

For the first time when hosting the first leg of a European tie, Olympique Lyonnais came away empty-handed from their UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-final encounter with Chelsea on Wednesday evening.

In this analysis, the UEFA Technical Observer panel shines a light on the main tactical features of the match, including Lyon's pressing and the defensive efforts of a Chelsea side who frustrated the defending champions en route to securing a 1-0 success which leaves them well placed going into next week's second leg at Stamford Bridge.

Goals

0-1: Guro Reiten (28)

The UEFA match observer noted that the main source of Chelsea's chances were fast attacks and transitions, and their goal was no different. Erin Cuthbert won a challenge with Ellie Carpenter in a central position, slipped the ball through the legs of Damaris Egurrola and then – showing excellent awareness – angled a pass towards Reiten, coming in from the left. On her supposedly weaker foot, the Norwegian produced a terrific, first-time curled finish inside the far corner.

"I felt that I didn't have much time to line up the shot," said Reiten. "That's why I struck it so well, actually. I don't usually shoot with my right foot; the girls even told me they'd never seen me shoot with my right!"

Player of the Match: Guro Reiten

After four assists in the group stage, Reiten left Lyon with her first goal of this European campaign, though it was not just her winning strike that impressed the UEFA match observer, who said: "She scored the decisive goal, created chances and worked hard defensively. She also handled different positions very well and was vital for Chelsea's success in this game."

Team formations

Lyon

Lyon set up in a 4-4-2 diamond shape and in possession, Sonia Bampastor's team overloaded the central areas with five players, leaving the wide areas for the two full-backs (see video analysis above).

An influential performer in their midfield was the powerful Lindsey Horan (26), who was involved in many of their attempts to break down the low Chelsea defence and missed a clear chance to score at the end of the first half, missing her kick following a cut-back by Perle Morroni (5).

With ten ball recoveries, Horan ranked third in the OL team behind Vanessa Gilles (21) and Carpenter (12), who produced 13 and 12 respectively. As well as her 13 recoveries – a total matched only by Chelsea left-back Jess Carter this week – Gilles also produced the most clearances (eight) of any player in quarter-final first-leg action.

Chelsea

Emma Hayes set her team up in a 4-2-3-1 structure with the versatile Cuthbert (22) operating behind Sam Kerr (20) in attack. At times, when defending deep, their formation became a 4-4-1-1 with Kerr as the outlet on the counterattack.

Generally, Chelsea defended in a mid-block and closed the central spaces, pressing from inside to out. In the view of the match observer, they did well when defending balls into their box with Millie Bright (4), prior to her withdrawal through injury, impressive in her one-v-one play and positioning.

In possession, it was noticeable that the Chelsea full-backs would push up the pitch with the wingers coming inside and central midfielders moving outside – rotational play to give them a numerical advantage in the spaces outside the Lyon diamond.

Features

UEFA's Technical Observer panel identified several key tactical points from Wednesday's contest, the first being the way Lyon pressed high up the pitch to put Chelsea under pressure as the visitors tried to build from the back.

"There was high pressing from Lyon throughout the whole game," said the match observer and as the video shows, this aggressive pressure gave Chelsea some awkward moments. In Clip 1, with the passing routes blocked off, we see goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger forced to kick long. Then in Clip 2, substitute Magdalena Eriksson's misplaced pass leads to a clear chance for Delphine Cascarino, who shoots against the goalframe.

There are pros and cons with every system and a downside of the diamond can be the space afforded to the opposition in wide areas, as happened in the move for the game's only goal.

That said, Clips 3 and 4 offer examples of one of the benefits: with the Lyon full-backs advancing up the flanks, the French champions were able to congregate numbers centrally and get players into spaces in the lines both in front of and behind Chelsea's defence. This is precisely what happens in Clip 4, where Dzsenifer Marozsán's clever flick sends Eugénie Le Sommer clear of the Chelsea back line for an early opportunity she dinks wide.

Eugénie Le Sommer spurned an early opportunity against ChelseaAFP via Getty Images

At other times – as we see in Clip 5 – Lyon used their full-backs against Chelsea's own narrow defensive shape, with Morroni finding space on the left to send over a dangerous cross. As the observer remarked: "In offence, Lyon overloaded the central areas with five players, leaving the wide areas for the two wing-backs."

As a general point on Lyon's attacking play, the fact Chelsea's defensive line stayed fairly low meant only occasionally was there space behind, such as when Le Sommer burst clear. Meanwhile, the absence of centre-forward Ada Hegerberg – fit enough only for the bench – was a factor in their failure to capitalise on their 22 crosses into the box (a total bettered only by Barcelona this week). That and Chelsea's resilience, of course. "They controlled their penalty box really well," said the observer, commending the Londoners' defending of their area from crosses.

Not surprisingly, from an evening where Chelsea emerged victorious, the observer picked out other positive aspects of the visiting team's display.

Clip 6 shows their aggression out of possession as they get tight to the player on the ball and deny them time and space. This particular example ends with Sophie Ingle feeding Kerr, who carries the ball forward before the danger is smothered by Wendie Renard.

If Chelsea had difficulties in getting out at times in the first half, when they lost possession cheaply on more than one occasion, their work out of possession impressed the match observer, with midfielders Ingle (who registered nine recoveries and five clearances) and Melanie Leupolz earning praise for their efforts in closing space in front of their back line. "Together they shielded the central space in a way that meant Lyon had to go wide in their final attacks most of the time."

Sophie Ingle registered nine recoveries and five clearances against LyonGetty Images

Moreover, as Clips 7 and 8 go on to show, these efforts to disrupt Lyon led to counterattacking opportunities, particularly in the second period when the game opened up. In Clip 7, we see Cuthbert win the ball in the attacking third and get in a low shot on goal. The next sequence shows an interception in the centre of the pitch, which leads to Reiten sending away substitute Johanna Rytting Kaneryd for another shooting attempt late on.

The final aspect featured in the video is the impressive way that Chelsea's talented forwards combined to create openings. Clips 9 and 10 present two occasions on which Kerr and Lauren James combined to menacing effect.

In Clip 9, James strikes a fabulous shot against the post after breaking down the right on a one-two with Kerr; the last clip then shows James return the favour with a brilliant ball over the Lyon defence, which puts Kerr through for an opportunity spurned.

While Kerr was a constant threat in behind, James's work on the wing warrants a mention too. She ended the match with more take-ons (eight) than any other Chelsea player, while her five tackles (66.7% success rate) was the second-highest number managed by any player in this week's quarter-finals.

Coaches' assessments

Sonia Bompastor, Lyon coach: "We're disappointed and frustrated. I think we started well in the first 30 minutes and caused them problems. But you have to be clinical at this level. Chelsea defended well and were able to hurt us on the counterattack."

Emma Hayes, Chelsea coach: "Defensively, we stuck to our task, our game plan. In the first half, particularly after the goal, [there was] good use of the ball. We switched the pitch well. The second half was really scrappy. We pride ourselves on our grit and our defending.

"You can't open yourself up. You can't come here and expect to have everything. I think for us as a team, being compact is something we pride ourselves on. That is important and it means sometimes you have to be without the ball and when we were, everybody was diligent and did their job. And I think we created some big 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."