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Analysis: A European Competition Comparison
With full coverage of leagues around Europe, Prozone can provide performance insights on key differences in the style of play and what can be expected from European qualification.
TweetNext years showcases of European Football, the UEFA Champions League & the UEFA Europa League, will see three English teams competing within European competition for the first time in a number of decades. Birmingham booked their place in the Europa League after a dramatic Carling Cup final win over Arsenal; whilst Manchester City’s campaign this season has seen them guarantee fourth sport in the Premier League and with it entry into Europe’s elite competition. City's win also brought joy for Stoke City, who now qualify for next season's Europa League as a result of their FA Cup final place at Wembley. Following the celebrations that swept around Eastlands and Wembley what can these newcomers expect after finally booking their ticket alongside the elite at European football's top tables.
A lot of opinion exists around the ‘European’ style of play and how the game played in the European competitions differs to the game we see in our domestic leagues on a regular basis. So is this really a football club’s finest hour and can the European apprentices be freed from the shackles of well rehearsed English football style?
Through the data we can see that European football is perhaps more strategic than the Premier League. In comparison to the Premier League there is on average 22% greater number of passes per team in the Champions League, and 7.9% more passes in the Europa League. When looking to the other components of Europe’s big five leagues as a reference, (Spain, Italy, Germany, France) this decrease in the number of passes domestically is slightly smaller, as the other European domestic leagues see an average of 6 more passes per team than the top flight of English football.
As well as an increase in the quantity of passes, the Champions League teams are more efficient with a 83.9% success rate in their passing, the highest of the five European domestic leagues and its European little sister.
It is often said that European football is played at a slower pace and ultimately less entertaining than the domestic game with more time and space to dictate the play. The statistics would support this as players take more time on the ball. During the 2010/2011 Champions League a team had on average 15.8% more touches on the ball in a match than a team featuring in any of the big five domestic leagues in Europe. To break the data down further at an individual level, within the elite UEFA competition players within the Champions League are averaging 2.18 touches per possession in comparison to the average 2.07 touches seen across the European domestic leagues.
Therefore with the European game a little less rushed, you could say teams are in control of the ball more as we see that there are fewer changes of possession within a match. Whist a team playing within Europe’s big five leagues will on average give possession of the ball away 217 times throughout a match, in the Champions League this figure is lower at 199. Perhaps as expected, the Europa League is of closer comparison than its European big brother to the domestic leagues, with this season’s data showing an average of 218 losses of possession per game. From a defensive perspective, 11.2% fewer interceptions are seen in the Champions League compared to the domestic game, again further demonstrating the decrease in loss of possession; that however despite no significant differences in the number of tackles.
Through the data we can suggest that the Premier League teams can expect a less attacking game when playing in their European competitions. Whilst on average 32.7 extra passes are made in the oppositional half in the Champions League, the actual amount of penalty area entries of the ball is 18.4% lower than the Premier League and 10.4% lower than across the other big five European Leagues. Similarly, both the Champions League and Europa League don’t compare favourably on the attacking front in terms of number of crosses. With 11.8% and 19.25% less respective crosses than the Premier League average. Again this increase is reflected in the domestic leagues across Europe, with the big five having 2.2% more crosses than the Champions League and 8.1% more than the Europa League.
This greater attacking play culminates in Premier League teams having more shots per game, with 4.4% more shots per game than in the Champions League and 7.6% more shots per game than in the Europa League. The statistics also show that with an average of 14.1 shots per game the Premier League has the highest domestic average of the big five. In fact the Champions League figures show that teams competing in this competition also see 4.4% more attempts at goal than teams competing at a domestic level in France, Spain, Germany or Italy, demonstrating further the prolific rates of chance creation in the Premier League that teams may not see replicated in their European campaigns.
It is however the cream of Europe that is more efficient in front of goal and the Champions League that achieves the best shooting accuracy, 1.5% greater percentage of accurate shots than the Premier League. So even with fewer chances the elite European competition sees 1.36 goals per team per game on average, 2.2% greater than the average goals scored in a Premier League match. Perhaps this explains why the final of this prestigious football club competition, drawing over 100 million television viewers, is still the most watched annual sporting event in the world and Manchester City, Birmingham and Stoke will be wanting to write their own chapter in the rich history of European football.
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