Champions League performance insights: Different approaches from Barcelona and Porto

Barcelona and Porto took contrasting routes into the attacking areas in their UEFA Champions League Group H contest this week – the hosts going via the wings while their visitors sought more central paths.

This article by the UEFA analysis unit shines a light on each side's progressions into the attacking third and, to begin with Barcelona, the video below provides an illustration of one notable aspect of their approach.

In the video, we see the Spanish champions attempt to advance the ball down the right before then looking to the other side of the pitch with Frenkie de Jong's crossfield pass to João Cancelo, the full-back who had such a productive evening on the left, scoring one goal and setting up another.

Such switches of play were a recurring theme on a night when Barcelona focused their attacking efforts almost exclusively on the flanks.

Final-third entry: Type of progression

This first bar graph above emphasises how Barcelona looked for the spaces outside of Porto's defensive shape in order to progress into the final third.

The graph shows the final-third entries of both teams and, in Barcelona's case, 41% of them were on the outside. Porto, by contrast, took a different route with almost half of their final-third entries (15 of 33 – or 45%) resulting from passes in behind.

Final-third entry: Lead actions

It is interesting to look also at the lead actions that delivered the ball to the final third. If penetrative passes were the leading action for each club, this second graph shows that Barcelona also had success with individual actions (22%) and long balls (20%). Porto's approach had a greater emphasis on through balls (15% to Barcelona's 5%).

On Barcelona's use of long balls, they played eight into the attacking third and a chief target – identified by UEFA's match observer at the stadium – was João Cancelo, Xavi Hernández's team looking to him regularly as they switched the play with crossfield passes.

Barcelona Lane Location

This 3D visualisation above shows the pitch split into five lanes, offering a breakdown of the areas where Barcelona had success advancing the ball into their attacking third against Porto.

We can see that Raphinha on the right was integral to their attacking endeavours, with his far-right lane the focus of 41% of Barcelona’s progressions. The left wing, where João Cancelo was operating, accounted for a fair portion of progressions too – 22%.

The video above is of João Cancelo's equalising goal and it enforces the point about those wide lanes, showing the full-back move into Lane 1 to receive the ball before stepping inside to score.

This was a match in which the Portuguese international carried the ball forward as well as any Barcelona player – indeed with a total of six ball carries following 1v1s, he ranked joint-third in that category among all the players in action on Matchday 5.

Porto Lane Location

One of the key differences between the teams' respective strategies on Tuesday is that where Barcelona produced just 5% of their progressions down the central lane of the pitch, Porto were far more active there – and the graph above shows that 21% of their entries were in Lane 3.

Indeed, between them, Lanes 3 and 4 were the focus of almost half (48%) of the visitors' work in advancing the ball into attacking areas.

Final-third entry: Passing positions

To add another component, this graph shows how Barcelona's full-backs played a significant role in terms of passes into the final third (38%) compared with just 7% for Porto. In the case of Sérgio Conceição's men, 61% of their successful passes into the final third were by central players; by comparison, Barcelona's midfielders registered a 22% share.

UEFA's analysts highlighted the importance of the connection between Barcelona's wingers and full-backs. The wingers received the ball off their full-back ten times in the final third, accounting for almost one-third (31%) of all entries.

With the accent on the wide areas, it is hardly a surprise to see also that Barcelona's wingers were the recipients of more than half their team's passes into the final third (56%). For Porto, the lion's share of such passes were to the feet of a forward (57%).

Finally, the dribbling abilities of Barcelona's wide players – both full-backs and wingers – are reflected by the statistic for final-third entries by individual players in Tuesday's game. Of a total of nine from Barcelona, their full-backs (four) and wingers (four) accounted for eight between them.

All in all, then, a good night for Xavi's wide boys.