Barca's superiority by Tomasz Cyprian Wilczak

BARCA’s superiority It was matchday 12 of the UEFA Champions League semi finals, second leg between Chelsea FC and FC Barcelona. Catalonians arrived to Stamford Bridge to prove its domination in 2008/09 edition of the UCL, after 0-0 draw fortnight before at Camp Nou. BARCA played Total Football throughout the campaign and Hiddink expected difficult match. Pep Guardiola, FC Barcelona’s manager, at the press conference prior to the start of the match, ensured that BARCA will keep playing its offensive style of football. There were many concerns for BARCA as to what approach should be taken to over come obsticles such as: missing Puyol, Henry, Marquez; playing very phisical competitior; away game. Let’s see how FCB (FC Barcelona) performed. The analysis concentrates on three factors of FC Barcelona Team.

Chelsea FC - FC Barcelona

2. IMMEDIATE PRESSURE

- Abidal red carded - BARCA played 3 man in defense line - Alves~Toure~Pique - Pique moved up as game progressed in second half, pressure in opponents half - offside traps - defenders vulnerable to counter attack 3. OFFENSIVNESS - number of fouls commited 1. BALL POSSESSION - Pique moved into offensive third It’s difficult to manage ball possession throughtout the - penalty box penatration, playing to player under RFB,RD,SW match at rate above 60%. Following characteristics of pressure the team must be developed: - LFB, RFB offensive support; flank runs & play; - combination play: one touch passing with players’ eventually crosses deep into the penalty area/goal movement, playing to open space, playing under area direct opponent’s pressure, short passing - changing direction of the attack by concentrating - playing out of pressure: support for a player with the opponent in one sector of the field and switching play ball, one/two/three options avialable minimum, using into different sector goalkeeper, calm reaction from goalkeeper - accurate passing - quick ball movement = ball makes the play: players - players movement understand their roles on the field = braziliana (playing safe football) - highest percentage of ball possession (see chart #1) - accurate passing (see chart #1) - chelsea defends in its defensive half with whole team - teammates concentrated all the time

Presented by Tomasz Wilczak Coach - UEFA B

MATCH FACTS Chelsea FC

FC Barcelona

Chelsea FC - FC Barcelona

Roster: Čech 1 Cole 3 Essien 5 Lampard 8 Drogba 11 Ballack 13 Malouda 15 Bosingwa 17 Terry 26 Alex 33 Anelka 39

Roster: 1 Víctor Valdés 3 Piqué 6 Xavi Hernández 8 Iniesta 9 Eto'o 10 Messi 15 Keita 20 Daniel Alves 22 Abidal 24 Touré 28 Busquets

Belletti 35

7 Gudjohnsen 11 Krkić 16 Sylvinho

9’ - (goal) 5 Essien 72' (In) 35 Belletti / (Out) 11 Drogba

66' - (red card) 22 Eric Abidal 85' - (In) 11 Krkić / (Out) 28 Busquets 90'+3 - (goal) 8 Iniesta 90'+6 - (In) 7 Gudjohnsen / (Out) 8 Iniesta 90'+7 - (In) 16 Sylvinho / (Out) 9 Eto'o

O,LD,LFB,ID

Note: FC Barcelona was losing 1-0 since 9th minute of the first half and scored equlizing goal at added time in the second half.

Chelsea FC 1 - 1 FC Barcelona

Semi-Final 2nd leg - Wednesday 6 May 2009 Stamford Bridge - London

FC Barcelona advanced to the final on away goals, and evntually won the 2008 European Champions League.

FC Barcelona 0 - 0 Chelsea FC

Semi-Final 1st leg - Tuesday 28 April 2009 Camp Nou - Barcelona

55 28.35

108.102 28.73

54 29

108.001 29

0 0 8

4 0 8

4 0 16

1 0 7

2 1 10

3 1 17

368 305 83% 46 23 50% 238 209 88% 84 73 87% 35 23 3

323 266 82% 47 34 72% 216 179 83% 60 53 88% 40 31 6

691 571 83% 93 57 61% 454 388 86% 144 126 88% 75 54 9

Distance covered (metres) Top speed (km/h)

Discipline Yellow card(s) Red card(s) Foul(s) committed

Passing & solo runs 170 100 59% 43 17 40% 89 52 58% 38 31 82% 17 9 7

347 209 60% 92 39 43% 173 110 64% 82 60 74% 27 18 10

Passes attempted Passes completed Completion rate Long passes attempted Long passes completed Completion rate Medium passes attempted Medium passes completed Completion rate (%) Short passes attempted Short passes completed Completion rate (%) Delivery/solo runs-attacking third Delivery/solo runs-key area Delivery/solo runs-penalty area

7 1'48" 11 12'17" 16 0'28"

1 -

Source: UEFA.com

Sergio Busquets

total PA %

31 62 111 51 30 46 43 55 28 50 63

40 71 127 63 40 59 51 74 36 58 71

78% 87% 87% 81% 75% 78% 84% 74% 78% 86% 89%

0 1 0

#### 100% ####

571

691

83%

TP-Time Played; PC-Passes Completed; PA-Passes Attempted

Chelsea FC

ball distribution 20+

Analyzing chart#1, FC Barcelona Team doubled and in some cases trippled Chelsea FC in ball passing, delivery/solo runs and shots off target. That shows domination on the pitch and having on average ball possession at 64%, converting into minutes gives little less than a half of the game. Although, Chelsea FC had more shots on target, the shots total is in BARCA favor. These statistics clearly indicate very offensive, focused approach by Catalonians where on the other hand english side shows defensive and looking for opportunity for counter attack approach. Charts#2 & 3 shows players passing distribution. In red squares is indicated ball distribution above 20 and yellow between 10-19. The purpose is to contrast two teams.

3 5 2

16 -

Team total:

chart #1

177 109 62% 49 22 45% 84 58 69% 44 29 66% 10 9 3

Eidur Gudjohnsen Bojan Krkić Sylvinho

1 6 2 3

11 1 1 -

chart #2

54 28.73

2 12 2 4

7 -

28 1 7 21 5 5 4 2 3 2 10

from Petr Čech Ashley Cole Michael Essien Frank Lampard Didier Drogba Michael Ballack Florent Malouda José Bosingwa John Terry Alex Nicolas Anelka

1 3 5 8 11 13 15 17 26 33 39

Juliano Belletti

35 25'23"

Team total:

5 1

8 1 6 1

13 3 3 3 1

15 7 5 3 6 3 4

ball distribution 10-19

100'05" 100'05" 100'05" 100'05" 74'42" 100'05" 100'05" 100'05" 100'05" 100'05" 100'05"

2 1 5 3 1 -

3 3 3 1 3 1 -

4 1 1 1 4 1 2 3

1 4 10 1 3

1 2 1 1

2 3 2 4

1 3 1

1 3 3

1 -

3 -

11 5 2 1 4

17 3 2 2 1 4 -

26 4 1 1 -

33 1 2 1 1 1

39 3 1 2 3 1 4 9 -

35 1 1 3 1 1

total PA %

24 21 14 28 8 19 20 30 16 8 16

38 30 29 41 19 31 39 44 20 17 30

63% 70% 48% 68% 42% 61% 51% 68% 80% 47% 53%

56%

209

347

60%

chart #3

54 26.61

Distance & speed

7 6 5 2

Sylvinho

64%

2 8 6 8 6 2 6

Bojan Krkić

67%

24 8 7 6 1 1 3 6 -

Juliano Belletti

61%

22 1 2 2 3 2 2 4 -

Eidur Gudjohnsen

Ball possession (%)

20 6 5 20 7 2 10 4

Nicolas Anelka

40:09:00

15 2 7 6 5 2 4

Alex

100:05:00

20:51

10 1 4 12 9 9

Yaya Touré

52:02:00

19:18

8 1 17 1 6 - 11 7 6 1 19 6 2 12 15 11 23

9 5 12 3

John Terry

48:03:00

Ball possession (mins)

1 3 6 8 9 10 15 20 22 24 28

8 2 6 22

Eric Abidal

Time Total time played (mins)

7 1 3 1 4 1

Víctor Valdés Gerard Piqué Xavi Hernández Andrés Iniesta Samuel Eto'o Lionel Messi Seydou Keita Daniel Alves Eric Abidal Yaya Touré Sergio Busquets

6 11

ball distribution 10-19

José Bosingwa

36%

Save(s)

100'05" 100'05" 100'05" 98'17" 99'37" 100'05" 100'05" 100'05" 68'34" 100'05" 87'48"

3 10

Daniel Alves

33%

Offside(s)

Florent Malouda

39%

Assist(s) Corner(s)

from

Seydou Keita