AC Milan took an enormous step in direction of direct qualification for the final 16 of the Champions League as they beat Girona 1-0 at house on Wednesday evening.
The one objective of the sport got here late within the first half by Rafael Leao, who collected a cross from Ismael Bennacer after the midfielder recovered the ball nicely and hammered a shot into the roof of the online from contained in the field.
Milan missed probabilities to make it a better night for themselves, however Girona additionally had their moments and had been inches away from levelling by Bryan Gil who was marginally offside when curling in a chic shot.
The principle factor was to get the three factors and a clear sheet, the primary beneath Sergio Conceicao. Additionally it is a fifth consecutive win within the Champions League, rising to sixth spot within the course of. Under is Rohit Rajeev’s tactical evaluation.
Key enchancment
A really constructive factor rom this recreation was how a lot the urgent has improved. Nonetheless, it wasn’t with out Conceicao directing site visitors from the touchline.
You possibly can see how he’s pushing the gamers ahead asking them to press Girona excessive up the pitch, exhibiting that they nonetheless require an apparent set off.
Conceicao’s most important precept is definitely off the ball, in contrast to most coaches. Like Stefano Pioli, he needs his workforce to press the opposition excessive up the pitch with bodily depth. Pioli most popular a man-oriented method whereas Conceicao prefers a hybrid of man and zonal.
Milan’s first probability in open play got here from a Leao shot for which area was created by Youssouf Fofana. The Frenchman dragged his marker away and creating area for Leao to obtain, flip and shoot.
A system recreation
Conceicao instructed Milan to construct with two from the bottom, so Girona used a 4-4-2 formation to dam the passing lanes of the 2 centre-backs.
Milan countered this and tweaked to a 3+2 formation to construct out. Tijjani Reijnders dropped from his greater place whereas the full-backs stayed broad to stretch the slim 4-4-2.
Girona had been capable of finding area in Milan broad areas utilizing third-man runs the place they might cross inside and draw Theo inside after which have a full-back or midfielder make a large run by the vacated area.
The ‘eight-second rule’ of Gegenpressing dictates that the eight seconds after profitable the ball again is the perfect time to attain a objective, as a result of it takes that period of time for an opponent to settle right into a defensive shapes.
After Bennacer received the ball again within the centre circle, he scanned the sector rapidly moved it vertically ahead to Leao, ticking off the precept defined above.
Set piece evaluation
With every passing recreation we’re starting to study a bit extra about how Conceicao needs to organise his workforce from set items, such because the attacking and defensive corners beneath.
Information
One thing we’ve talked about in earlier analyses is psxG (Put up-Shot Anticipated Objectives) or xGOT (Anticipated Objectives on Goal). Each are defined beneath:
➤ Put up-Shot xG (PSxG) is calculated after a shot has been taken and usually considers shot placement, and if the mannequin consists of it, goalkeeper positioning in assigning a price between 0 (off-target) and 1 to each shot.
➤ The Anticipated Objectives on Goal mannequin is constructed on historic on-target pictures and consists of the unique xG of the shot but in addition the goalmouth location the place the shot ended up. It offers extra credit score to pictures that find yourself within the corners in contrast with pictures that go straight down the center of the objective.
The xGOT for Leao’s objective was 0.77, which suggests it was a really top quality try and that’s the reason the goalkeeper had just about no probability.
The place Milan excelled is within the duels class. Milan received extra floor duels (10 vs. 9) and Aerial Duels (39 vs. 37) and this gave the Rossoneri that slight little bit of benefit in defending their slender lead.
As soon as once more Milan had just one objective from an xG of 1.39 which once more goes to indicate they’ve a ending downside. Perhaps with , the administration have seen this.
