This game between Ferencvaros and Juventus was played in 3 round of UEFA Champions League. Juventus won their last away game against Spezia with Cristiano Ronaldo double after returning. Ferencvaros ended their last game 1-1 draw against MOL Fehervar. Before last game against Spezia, Juventus manager Andrea Pirlo told, that his team has some problems with making good shot positions. As we know, Juventus coped with this problem in the last match, but it was necessary to repeat it in the Champions League. Let’s look at our tactical analysis.
Lineups
Ferencvaros manager Sergiy Rebrov chose 4-1-4-1 basic formation. In the next steps of our analysis we’ll look how his system worked. It’s necessary to say, that Ferencvaros had a very nice offensive group, including fast and skillful players, such as Oleksandr Zubkov, Isael, Tokmac Nguen and Somalia. Andrea Pirlo chose 4-4-2 basic formation, with Danilo and Juan Cuadrado like fullbacks, two great forwards Alvaro Morata and Cristiano Ronaldo and two defensive midfielders Adrien Rabiot and former Barcelona player Arthur. Also, Federico Chiesa played very important role, especially in build up phase. The next step of our analysis is to look at Juventus offensive structure and how the hosts tried to break it.
Juventus offensive phase
Andrea Pirlo used 3-4-3 structure in attacking phase. Basic 4-4-2 scheme turned to 3-4-3 by movements of Chiesa. Former Fiorentina forward and Cuadrado went higher, three central defenders made three-man back line.
Central area was covered by Arthur and Rabiot. Ferencvaros tried to keep 4-1-4-1 defensive formation in order to deny numerical superiority. Sometimes this structure turned to 4-5-1 and hosts had advantage in the central area. It’s very good to see it on the next picture.
It’s necessary to notice next important tactical thoughts of Sergiy Rebrov. Firstly, he left one forward near three central defenders of the opponent in order to create 5 vs 4 and 4 vs 3 situations on the other side. Secondly, he got his team a good chance to do a fast counterattack. Thirdly, he chose very clever tactical modification of defensive structure. There were game episodes, when Ferencvaros used 5-4-1 or 5-3-2 formations. Left attacking midfielder was added to defensive line to deny using the width of the field of the opponent. It was a very good tactics.
Sometimes, there were moments, when Ferencvaros defensive structure was something like 6-3-1. It was caused by movement of defensive midfielder Igor Kharatin, who added to the center-back zone.
The next step of out analysis is to look at how Ferencvaros tried to do a positional attacks and how Juventus tried to cope with.
Juventus defensive structure
The first tactical thing to analyze is important role of Igor Kharatin. As it was said earlier, sometimes he had to add to defensive line. Besides this movement, he played a significant role in build up structure. He made it 3-4-3 or 3-5-2. It helped to align numerical superiority by field width. Also, he did a progressive runs to do something dangerous.
Juventus used a 4-4-2 formation while defending. Also, they used 4-4-2 diamond occasionally. Generally, this game phase looked like this.
Fast and skillful offensive players of the hosts tried to find a chance to move through Juventus defensive structure. They tried to make a numerical advantage and progress the ball forward.
Juventus defensive structure tried not to fall apart and keep united.
Juventus shot positions
After game against Spezia, there was a question – can Juventus to score a lot of goals again? As we know, they scored. So, the next question of our analysis is what about Juventus shot positions? Let’s do a little research.
To start, let’s look at xG stats. Ferencvaros collected 1,51 xG points, their opponents collected 1,92 xG points. Despite the fact, that Federico Chiesa did a lot of dangerous movements, most xG points Juventus earned from activity of right flank, where Cuadrado was active as usual. This value is 0,86 xG.
The most dangerous shot (0,54 xG) belongs to Alvaro Morata in 7 minute of the game, which ended in a goal. It appeared from right flank activity.
May be, this topic deserves a single report, but it’s important to think about next fact. Two of four goals were scored due to an opponent’s mistake. So, if we’ll not add these goals to our analysis, we’ll get a fact, that Juventus scored two goals by good combination and good shot position. Also, if we’ll take a look at xG of every shot, we’ll not be able to find a lot of dangerous shots. This is amazing because of final score 4-1.
Conclusion
Juventus arrived to Budapest in order to take three points. They coped with this task, but it was not so confident as it could be. Ferencvaros showed themselves like very good participant of the UEFA Champions League. Team manager Sergiy Rebrov made very smart tactical decisions, which caused a lot of problems for Juventus, despite the final score. He tried to use 5-4-1 defensive structure in order to deny a numerical superiority of Juventus by field width. Also, he made a good choice, allowing fast and skillful players to play. Ferencvaros tried to find a chance to score and they didn’t stay at the back. Juventus played typical 4-4-2 structure, with important Chiesa movements in attacking and build up phases.
To sum up, the situation in group G seems like Juventus will play in 1/8 stage of UEFA Champions League with a high probability. Ferencvaros, probably, will fight against Dynamo Kyiv for the UEFA Europa League ticket.
