2013/14 UEFA Champions League Technical Report
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Technical report 2013/14 2013/14 UEFA Champions League technical report League Champions UEFA 2013/14 Contents Introduction.................................................................. 2 Crossing .......................................................................39 The lure of Lisbon ......................................................... 4 Talking points .............................................................40 The final: A minute difference ..................................12 Distance covered .......................................................43 The winning coach: Carlo Ancelotti .........................17 Approaching the goal ................................................44 Technical topics .........................................................18 Discipline .....................................................................46 Passing ........................................................................26 All-star squad ..............................................................48 Goalscoring analysis ..................................................28 Results and tables ......................................................50 The importance of scoring first ................................36 Team profiles ..............................................................52 Attempts on goal .......................................................38 INTRODUCTION Group A Group B Bayer 04 Manchester Real Sociedad FC Shakhtar Leverkusen United FC de Fútbol Donetsk Galatasaray AŞ Juventus FC København Real Madrid CF (LEV) (MU) (RS) (SHK) (GAL) (JUV) (KOB) (RM) Group C Group D Paris FC Bayern PFC CSKA Manchester FC Viktoria RSC Anderlecht SL Benfica Olympiacos FC Saint-Germain München Moskva City FC Plzeň (AND) (BEN) (OLY) (PSG) (BAY) (CSKA) (MC) (PLZ) Group E Group F Reading the game The review of the 22nd season of UEFA attended the matches played during the food for thought. By highlighting tendencies Champions League football combines the knockout stage of the competition. These and trends at the peak of professional club annual technical report, which has been culminated with the final in Lisbon, contested football, the report also offers coaches who published for the last 15 seasons, with the for the second successive season by two teams are active in the development levels of the FC Steaua Borussia Olympique commercial, marketing, financial and from the same national association. game information that may be helpful in FC Basel 1893 Chelsea FC FC Schalke 04 Bucureşti Arsenal FC Dortmund SSC Napoli de Marseille broadcasting aspects – the essential terms of working on the qualities which will (BSL) (CHL) (SCH) (STE) (ARS) (DOR) (NAP) (MAR) This mix of facts and observations seeks to ingredients in the success of European be needed by the players and coaches who provoke as well as to inform. The objective is to football’s premier club competition. The will play leading roles in shaping the UEFA provide inspiration for analysis, reflections and technical report is also being produced as a Champions League of the future. debate which, it is hoped, will give technicians limited-edition stand-alone publication for a small target group of front-line coaches. Group G Group H As usual, the technical report sets out to provide a permanent record of the 125 matches played during the 2013/14 UEFA Champions League season and to present factual and statistical information in a reader-friendly format. Data on specific matches and the 32 teams who competed in the competition are widely available – Club Atlético notably on UEFA’s own website. The focus in de Madrid FK Austria Wien FC Porto FC Zenit AFC Ajax FC Barcelona Celtic FC AC Milan this report is therefore to deliver an overview (ATL) (AW) (POR) (ZEN) (AJX) (BAR) (CEL) (ACM) based on the presentation and interpretation of factual evidence, blended with the input The UEFA technical team lineup at the final (from left to right): Graham Turner, Ioan Lupescu, Thomas Schaaf, Sir Alex Ferguson, from the team of UEFA technical observers that Roy Hodgson, Jorge Jesus, Mircea Lucescu and Frank Ludolph The above abbreviations are used in place of club names on pages 52–85 2 2013/14 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TECHNICAL REPORT INTRODUCTION 3 COMPETITION OVERVIEW The lure of Lisbon Madrid’s great rivals laid down a marker in the group stage, dropping just two points each on their way to ensuring the competition’s first single-city final One of the multifarious challenges facing campaign with a bitter taste of disappointment members of the coaching profession is that despite a more than creditable season. expectations can blur the public’s perception FC Bayern München, for instance, had been of success and failure. In the UEFA Champions signalled as candidates to become the first club League, success can be a place on the starting to make a successful defence of the title, only grid, survival into the new calendar year, or to suffer a comprehensive semi-final defeat raising a national flag for the first time in the comparable to the one the Bavarian side had quarter-finals. For a select few clubs, inflicted on FC Barcelona a season earlier. It was expectations are pinned to images of the one of the many dramatic twists and turns captain triumphantly lifting ‘Old Big Ears’ – and which form the quintessence of the world’s some of the pre-season favourites ended the prime club competition. 4 2013/14 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TECHNICAL REPORT COMPETITION OVERVIEW 5 Zlatan Ibrahimović scores one of his four goals in Paris’s 5-0 win at Anderlecht The drama started to unfold during the expectations by reaching the knockout rounds. autumn. The results pages might have SSC Napoli suffered an even crueller reverse, suggested a degree of normality. Half of the 96 ending Group F in third place despite group games, for instance, had ended in victory accumulating 12 points by winning four of their for the home team. On the other hand, there six matches. Stark contrasts were provided by was an eye-catching fact that, in 25 of those Galatasaray AŞ and FC Zenit, both of whom fixtures, the visiting team had failed to score. secured second place with less impressive But theories about teams ‘travelling badly’ records. The Turkish club won their final home could be swiftly dismantled by another salient fixture in conditions which had forced a 24-hour feature of the group stage. No fewer than 31 postponement to qualify with seven points and fixtures were won by the away team. Of the a deficit of six in the goal difference column. AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli three possible results, draws slumped to a low The 1-0 victory in Istanbul signified an early exit of 18, with Groups D and F failing to produce a for Juventus after the Italian champions had stalemate. The statistics aligned with the lost ground by conceding three draws in their previous season (in which 51 of the 96 group previous five games. games had not been won by the home side) to On the same day, Zenit clinched second place suggest a more adventurous approach by in Group G despite a resounding 4-1 defeat in travelling teams. The competition offered Vienna against FK Austria Wien. It earned kudos spectators only six 0-0 draws (a meagre 4.8% for the Austrian debutants, who recorded their of the total) with the knockout rounds first win in the competition. It also allowed the contributing only one – the goalless first leg of Russian team, thanks to FC Porto’s defeat the semi-final between Club Atlético de Madrid Olympiacos advanced for the first time since 2009/10 against Atlético in Madrid, to progress with and Chelsea FC. cabin-size baggage of six points and a solitary Further question marks were attached to the win. The two Portuguese clubs joined Juventus, time-honoured theory that ten points are FC Steaua Bucureşti, Olympique de Marseille, enough to earn a place in the knockout stage AFC Ajax and Celtic FC on a seven-strong list of of the competition. SL Benfica, who went on former champions of Europe who fell at the to reach the UEFA Europa League final for the group stage hurdle. second successive season, reached double figures, only for the head-to-head ruling to consign them to third place behind Olympiacos FC – the Greek club exceeding Wesley Sneijder strikes to send Galatasaray through Philipp Lahm revelled in a new central role for Bayern 6 2013/14 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TECHNICAL REPORT COMPETITION OVERVIEW 7 Aaron Ramsey was in sparkling form for Arsenal in a tight Group F Further apparent contradictions could be found champions, Porto, and in Group H, AC Milan in the eight group tables, where differences took second place even though the only between first and last were generally opponent they defeated was Celtic. substantial but where few issues had been In terms of grand finales, Group F had no peer. definitively resolved before the final matchday. With Marseille losing their six matches, the The eight fourth-placed teams registered top two spots were contested by heavyweights deficits of between nine and 13 points in Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal FC and Napoli relation to the group winners – substantial and all three managed to knock down their margins in an 18-point campaign. At the same opponents once. A dramatic late winner at the time, differences between first and second Stade Vélodrome ultimately handed top spot ranged from zero (in Groups D and F) to ten to the 2013 silver-medallists, while Rafael Benfica bowed out despite amassing ten points points in Group G, where Atlético, significantly, Benítez’s side