UEFA Women's Champions League performance insight: Chelsea's dense defence stifles Barcelona
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
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"Our defensive display helped us to win the game," said match-winner Erin Cuthbert; UEFA's analysis unit explains what made the difference as Chelsea won their semi-final opener at Barcelona.
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After Chelsea's defensive performance in Barcelona had emerged as the key factor in the first leg of the semi-final, UEFA's analysis unit followed up the post-match tactical review by taking a closer look at the way Emma Hayes set up her team to take on the title-holders and the key performers who delivered the script she had drafted.
The prologue is about the defensive shape that allowed Chelsea to take a grip on midfield. The graphic showing the Londoners' out-of-possession set-up speaks volumes. It shows Mayra Ramírez and Lauren James – the front two in a 5-3-2 – staying close to a compact midfield trio of No22 Erin Cuthbert, No8 Melanie Leupolz and No6 Sjoeke Nüsken and, with the wing-backs tucking-in, the width of the Chelsea midfield throughout the whole game was a narrow 30.8 metres.
The graphic also shows how wing-backs No19 Johanna Kaneryd and No12 Ashley Lawrence were perfectly aligned to support the two wide midfielders, with Nüsken, in particular, covering the external passing routes – notably to Barça's dangerous winger Caroline Graham Hansen. The other key factor revealed by the graphic is the distance of 21.9m between the front two and the back line in a formation of great density.
When put alongside the second graphic, this indicates how Chelsea stifled Barcelona's attempts to play through the middle via their trio of No21 Keira Walsh, No12 Patri Guijarro and No14 Aitana Bonmatí. As Hayes commented after the match: "Barcelona are a world-class team who try to pull you out of areas to create gaps. But we were compact for large periods of the game."
As Ajax had discovered in the previous round, Chelsea encourage opponents to play long but, while 23% of Chelsea's passes were of 30m or more, Barça (only 6%) remained loyal to their short-passing game. As technical observer Jayne Ludlow pointed out in her match analysis, Barça tried to tease the visitors higher up the pitch by interchanging passes between No2 Irene Paredes, No23 Ingrid Engen and No22 Ona Batlle in the back line.
However, the first video clip illustrates how, when their opponents restart with a free-kick, they close down forward passing options. Graham Hansen has to hit the brakes after peeling away from her marker and, when the supply to her is finally attempted, the access route has been closed thanks to hard work by Nüsken to cover the outside lanes, while centre-back No21 Niamh Charles was always ready to jump out to support wing-back Lawrence and defend the area where Bonmatí liked to appear.
Cuthbert, scorer of the winning goal, commented after the match: "Our defensive display helped us to win the game. Barcelona's movement is very good – they are a world-class team with world-class players all around you. But we stayed disciplined throughout the game and I am proud of the team performance."
The second video clip illustrates her contribution to a total of 61 recoveries – 26 of them in midfield and seven in the attacking third. As the Barça keeper plays out to Walsh, the Chelsea skipper is alert to passing options, refuses to be drawn out of her zone and snaps into a high regain when the ball is played to Guijarro as she attempts to find space on the fringes of the visitors' compact midfield, where Nüsken also played an unsung role.
The key contribution by the versatile German midfielder was to obstruct supply routes to Bonmatí and, especially, to Graham Hansen, whose 1v1 skills are an important weapon in Barça's attacking armoury. The final clip shows Nüsken working hard to attack the ball, putting pressure on right-back Batlle and, when she could have been excused to thinking 'job done', executing a strong backward recovery run to come away with the ball and pass it immediately to a forward-facing team-mate. Nüsken contributed six of her team's 26 recoveries in midfield.
Barça's head coach Jonatan Giráldez was quick to acknowledge the efficiency of the visitors' defensive strategy. "Chelsea were very compact in their pressure with a 5-3-2 set-up," he said after the match. "We wanted to play inside to Aitana, Patri and Mariona but Chelsea had too many players and made it very difficult for us." As a result, the title-holders posted their lowest total of goal attempts during the season and, for the first time, failed to score.
Chelsea vs Barcelona