Champions League Performance Insights: The art of wing play
Monday, September 29, 2025
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The UEFA game insights unit and former England manager Sir Gareth Southgate break down how wide players are making their mark.
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The role of wingers emerged as a prominent talking point from the opening round of UEFA Champions League matches.
Whether it was wide men delivering balls into the 'corridor of uncertainty', providing cutbacks and far-post crosses, or simply cutting inside on their own – think Liverpool's Mohamed Salah – there was plenty for UEFA's game insights unit to digest ahead of this week's Matchday 2 fixtures.
With the reflections of UEFA Technical Observer Sir Gareth Southgate, the following analysis will explore the attacking variations seen from the Champions League's wide attackers on Matchday 1, building on Sir Gareth's initial post-match study of the wing play in the Newcastle United vs Barcelona match.
Crossing into the 'corridor of uncertainty'
'Exhibit A' is the goal that Anthony Gordon scored for Newcastle United against Barcelona. "Arriving at the far post is a premium position to score several goals a season," says Sir Gareth of the movement of Gordon, though here he elaborates on the cross from Jacob Murphy – an early ball into the space between the goalkeeper and back line.
This space is what Sir Gareth calls "the corridor of uncertainty", and crosses into it are particularly challenging for the defending team.
"With this first scenario, the wide players recognise the opportunity to deliver early into the space behind the defence," he says, "and this is the hardest ball for a defender to deal with as they're running back to their own goal, with the risk that a wrong step can lead to an own goal as well."
The second clip above features the second goal that Dušan Vlahović scored for Juventus against Borussia Dortmund, the Serbian attacking the space to connect with Pierre Kalulu's low ball from the right.
Analysing the movement for the two goals, Sir Gareth adds: "Gordon recognises he is goalside of his defender and maintains that advantage. Generally speaking, though, forwards will look to be in between defenders – as is Vlahović, in behind them – or running late across the face of them. With Vlahović, he gains the advantage by being the first to recognise the moment of transition, so he's alert to the possibility and positionally finds himself in between the defenders, which they are unable to recover.
"Often, the finishes in these instances require focus on clean contact with the ball. The pace is normally on the delivery, so you are basically diverting the ball rather than looking to create power."
Keys to finding space
To offer further variations, this second video below features a cutback and a ball to the back post. Sir Gareth explains: "With these goals, the wide player ends up in an attacking area where the two basic options with the best chance of success are either a cutback or a floated ball to the far post. The forward needs to recognise this and make his runs accordingly."
The first clip shows Leandro Trossard's goal in Arsenal's win at Athletic Club. The movement of the Belgian is pivotal as he pulls away from Aitor Paredes to get into position for the near-post cutback.
Sir Gareth says: "With Trossard, he recognises he's in a position where it's impossible to be found. He can see the back of his marker so he moves intelligently to find space 'off' the back of him. This is a gamble, but forward runs are often speculative and, on this occasion, the timing works for him and [Gabriel] Martinelli manages to find him."
Clip two displays Youssoupha Mbodji converting a back-post cross by Lukáš Provod in the Slavia Praha vs Bodø/Glimt game. As Sir Gareth observes, the more numbers the attacking team can get into the box, the better it is to occupy, distract and sow doubt in the minds of defenders – and Michal Sadílek's movement in the central area of the box has that very effect on Magnus Riisnæs, thus opening up more space at the back post.
For another example, consider the graphic above showing Copenhagen's second goal against Leverkusen – a Robert header from a Rodrigo Huescas cross. This provides another illustration of Sir Gareth's point about the value of getting numbers into the box.
Explaining the build-up to the goal, Sir Gareth says: "The run of Viktor Claesson attracts the defender, who has to make a decision on marking one of the two attackers. Robert delays his decision and is able to benefit from the defender who was originally marking him having to cover the run from Claesson."
Wingers cutting inside
The final aspect to consider is when wingers, rather than cross the ball, come infield with it instead. In Rafa Benítez's analysis of Liverpool's victory against Atlético de Madrid, one of the features highlighted was Salah's driving runs infield from the right.
Expanding on this point, Sir Gareth says: "The obvious strength of playing a left-footed player like Salah on the right is that it's hard to stop that type of player once they cut inside. You know what they want to do but stopping it is not so easy and Arjen Robben, for instance, was brilliant at this."
Another notable goal scored last week by a player coming inside was Khvicha Kvaratskhelia's explosive effort for Paris Saint Germain against Atalanta. As seen in the video above, for all of Kvaratskhelia's wizardry, he profits from the movement of team-mates João Neves and Senny Mayulu, which stretches the Atalanta back line and opens up more space for his run.
On the question of how wingers respond in situations when space does up, Sir Gareth remarks: "The decision-making of attacking players in these moments is instinctive. If defenders allow them the opportunity to shoot, they will do. But if they look to close them down, the attacker can look for the runs of their fellow forwards into those spaces left by the defenders."
Sporting CP gave us an example of the latter option with Alisson Santos' strike against Kairat Almaty, illustrated in the graphic above. In this instance, he was the beneficiary of Geovany Quenda's driving run inside from the right.
Finally, for coaches wondering how to foil these raiders from the wings, Sir Gareth has the following suggestion: "Your best way of stopping this is with a covering midfield player."
Coaching reflections: Let it flow
When it comes to setting up a team to exploit the wide areas, Sir Gareth says that a coach can only do so much. After all, in the final third, they must trust their flair players to produce the inspirational actions their role demands of them.
"Coaches and teams will work on set patterns of play, but the reality of the final third is that instinct and quality of thinking and decision-making are fundamental," he explains. "You want players to be free in their mind in these moments – 'in flow' and not playing while thinking." At the elite level, with time and space at such a premium, those moments of instinctive brilliance can make all the difference.
Sir Gareth Southgate was a defender and midfielder who won 57 caps for England. He moved from playing to coaching at Middlesbrough in 2006, then managed England's Under-21s before taking the senior job in 2016. He led his side to the semi-finals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the final of the 2020 and 2024 UEFA EUROs.
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