TECHNICAL REPORT 2019/20 CONTENTS 4 6 16 22 INTRODUCTION STORY OF THE FINAL Q&A: THE SEASON HANSI FLICK 28 30 34 44 RESULTS SQUAD OF TALKING GOALS OF THE SEASON POINTS THE SEASON ANALYSIS 46 54 58 62 GOALSCORING SET PLAYS CORNERS PRESSING 66 70 71 72 GOALKEEPING POSSESSION CROSSING FITNESS 74 106 TEAM ROLL OF PROFILES HONOUR COVER: Serge Gnabry and Kylian Mbappé battle for the ball in the Lisbon final XXXXXXXINTRODUCTION UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TECHNICAL REPORT 2019/20 GROUP A GROUP B Paris Real Madrid CF Club Brugge Galatasaray AŞ FC Bayern Tottenham Olympiacos FC FK Crvena Saint-Germain (RM) (BRU) (GAL) München Hotspur FC (OLY) zvezda (PAR) (BAY) (TOT) (CRV) GROUP C GROUP D Paris and Bayern line up before the final in Lisbon Manchester Atalanta BC FC Shakhtar GNK Dinamo Juventus Club Atlético Bayer 04 FC Lokomotiv City FC (ATA) Donetsk Zagreb (JUV) de Madrid Leverkusen Moskva (MC) (SHK) (DZ) (ATL) (BL) (LMO) This review of the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League season serves as a record of a campaign UNDER THE that spanned 119 matches between the start of the group stage in September 2019 and GROUP E GROUP F the final in Lisbon on 23 August 2020. MICROSCOPE The 21st UEFA Champions League technical report of its kind, it aims to provide a meaningful analysis of the action via the input of UEFA’s A UNIQUE UEFA CHAMPIONS Technical Observers’ Group. A member of this group LEAGUE SEASON PROMPTED MUCH analysed every fixture played in the knockout rounds and their insights provide the basis for the talking REFLECTION AS UEFA’S TECHNICAL points featured in the report, as well as shaping OBSERVERS ANALYSED THE KEY the reflections on the playing styles of the top 16 Liverpool FC SSC Napoli FC Salzburg KRC Genk FC Barcelona Borussia FC Internazionale SK Slavia clubs that feature in the team profiles section. (LIV) (NAP) (SBG) (GNK) (BAR) Dortmund Milano Praha (BVB) (INT) (SLP) TRENDS AND TALKING POINTS UEFA’s team of technical observers for 2019/20 comprised Packie Bonner (UEFA technical adviser), Cosmin Contra (Dinamo Bucureşti head coach), Aitor Karanka (Birmingham City manager), Roberto Martínez (Belgium national team head coach), GROUP G GROUP H Ginés Meléndez (Football Federation of Armenia technical director), Phil Neville (England women’s national team head coach), Gareth Southgate (England national team head coach) and Willi Ruttensteiner (Israel national team head coach). The report is backed by statistical analysis and, with the tendencies identified in the following pages, UEFA aims to provide a meaningful tool for coaches across the continent. It will be made available to RB Leipzig Olympique SL Benfica FC Zenit Valencia CF Chelsea FC AFC Ajax LOSC Lille members of the coaching family and, hopefully, (LEI) Lyonnais (SLB) (ZEN) (VAL) (CHE) (AJX) (LIL) will help inform development coaches about the (OL) prevailing styles and strategies, as well as the qualities required, at the elite end of the club game. 4 5 OVERVIEW 2019/20 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TECHNICAL REPORT UNSTOPPABLE FORCE ONCE BAYERN HAD HIT THEIR GROOVE UNDER HANSI FLICK, NOTHING COULD KNOCK Bayern’s Joshua THEM OFF THEIR STRIDE – NOT EVEN AN Kimmich lines up a corner during their first-leg win at Chelsea UNPRECEDENTED PAUSE IN ACTION in the last 16 6 7 OVERVIEW 2019/20 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TECHNICAL REPORT Jürgen Klopp’s holders was the Reds’ sole red cards when letting slip a three-goal lead in defeat in any competition before December. a 4-4 draw at Stamford Bridge. 308 For Napoli, their own Matchday 6 win over Genk No such regrets for Juventus, undefeated was the last act of Carlo Ancelotti’s reign: he Group D winners ahead of Atlético de Madrid, Record number lost his job a few hours later. and Barcelona, who prevailed in Group F and of goals scored in Tottenham changed coach too as two-time posted a notable milestone along the way as the group stage Champions League winner José Mourinho Ansu Fati became the youngest scorer of the replaced Mauricio Pochettino, the man Champions League era when finding the net in who had led Spurs to last season’s final. In a 2-1 Matchday 6 win at Inter Milan, aged 17 Mourinho’s first home fixture on 26 November, years and 40 days. It was the second time Inter his new side overturned a two-goal deficit to had surrendered a lead to lose to Barcelona; 16 beat Olympiacos 4-2 and secure second place even more costly was Dortmund’s comeback Record number of in their section behind Bayern. from 2-0 down to beat Antonio Conte’s away goals scored by One of the most intriguing encounters, with side, three points that proved the difference hindsight, came on 2 October between eventual between the teams come December. Bayern in Group B semi-finalists RB Leipzig and Olympique For drama, nothing matched the revival of Lyonnais in Group G. Sylvinho lost his job as Lyon tournament debutants Atalanta. After their 5-1 coach six days later but the 1-3-5-2 formation thrashing at Group C winners Manchester City tried out in their 2-0 away win was a glimpse of on 22 October they had three defeats with 11 13 the template that served the next coach, Rudi goals conceded. Yet their six attempts on target Garcia, so well later on. That loss was the only in Manchester was an easily ignored sign of life; Consecutive seasons hiccup for Leipzig’s Julian Nagelsmann who, at after Gabriel Jesus’s penalty miss when the teams Barcelona have won 32, became the youngest coach to lead a team met again in Milan, Mario Pašalić’s header rescued their group into the last 16, three points clear of Lyon. a 1-1 draw and Atalanta grabbed their lifeline by Kylian Mbappé Two other upcoming coaches, Albert Celades beating Dinamo and Shakhtar to become the first scored one of and Frank Lampard, steered their respective team since Newcastle United in 2002 to reach the the nine group stage hat-tricks clubs, Valencia and Chelsea, into the top two last 16 after three opening losses. It took them at Club Brugge positions in Group H, doing so at the expense of until the 66th minute of their last group fixture to 9 2019 semi-finalists Ajax, who were left ruing two climb into second place, but it was worth the wait. Hat-tricks scored in the group stage GROUP STAGE GROUP STAGE GOALS OVER LAST Start as you mean to carry on. This was certainly their own marker in Group A, beginning with a the case for Bayern München as they registered 3-0 home triumph against Real Madrid. Ángel 6 FIVE SEASONS 34 shots in their 3-0 opening victory over Di María struck twice against his old club though Crvena zvezda. The 7-2 rout of Tottenham those charting football trends will have noted a Unbeaten teams 2019/20 308 Hotspur, the 2019 runners-up, in their next third goal in which full-backs Thomas Meunier in the group stage 2018/19 275 fixture was an even bigger statement – it was and Juan Bernat combined on a counter. Only the heaviest home defeat for an English side in a 2-2 draw in Madrid denied Paris a spotless 2017/18 306 European competition and featured four goals defensive record – even then they showed by a former Arsenal player, winger Serge Gnabry. resilience in coming back from two down. 2016/17 278 As it was, the more modest 2-0 home If Thomas Tuchel’s team had the tightest 5 success over Olympiacos on 6 November proved defence, they also had one of the group 2015/16 280 For the first time Bayern’s most significant night in Group B. phase’s nine hat-trick heroes after Kylian only clubs from five Coming four days after a 5-1 defeat at Eintracht Mbappé’s treble at Club Brugge. It was countries (England, Frankfurt and Niko Kovač’s subsequent sacking, teenager Erling Braut Haaland who had set France, Germany, Italy, it was Hansi Flick’s first game as interim coach that ball rolling with a first-half hat-trick on his Spain) survived the and featured the Champions League debut competition debut in Salzburg’s 6-2 opening of Alphonso Davies, a winger asked to play victory over Genk. Haaland became the first group stage at left-back four days after his 19th birthday. teenager to score in five consecutive matches, Three weeks later, with a 6-0 crushing of Crvena which was enough for him to earn a midwinter zvezda facilitated by Robert Lewandowski’s move to Borussia Dortmund but not Salzburg 16-minute, four-goal scoring spree, Flick had qualification from Group D. Liverpool’s 2-0 made the best start of any Bayern coach. win in Austria on Matchday 6 made it three While Bayern reached Christmas as only the years running that they had advanced at the Liverpool qualified on Matchday 6 for the seventh club to end the group stage with a last, earning first place ahead of an unbeaten third season in a row perfect record, Paris Saint-Germain laid down Napoli side whose September success against 8 9 OVERVIEW 2019/20 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TECHNICAL REPORT Leipzig reached a first quarter-final ROUND OF 16 at the expense of 6 Tottenham Memphis Depay’s Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the round header from Ángel Di María’s corner made it goal in Turin meant of 16 started on 18 February and did not advantage Paris before full-back Juan Bernat conclude until 8 August.