Effects of Match Location, Match Status and Quality of Opposition on Regaining Possession in UEFA Champions League

Abstract

The present study aimed to examine the independent and interactive effects of match location, match status, and quality of opposition on regaining possession, analysed by the type and zone of ball recovery, in matches played in the 2011–2012 UEFA Champions League. Twenty-eight matches of the knockout phase were evaluated post-event using a computerized notational analysis system. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was applied to identify the effects of the previously mentioned situational variables on ball recovery type and zone. Match status and quality of opposition main effects were observed for both dependent variables, while main effects of match location were only evident for ball recovery zone. Additionally, the interactions Match location * Quality of opposition and Match status * Quality of opposition were significant for both type and zone of ball recovery. Better teams employed more proactive defensive strategies, since, even when winning, they tried to sustain their defensive success on actions that aimed to gain the ball from the opponents. Results emphasized the tendency for home and losing teams to defend in more advanced pitch zones. Better-ranked teams were also more effective than worse-ranked teams in applying defensive pressure in more advanced pitch positions. The findings of the study suggest that the defensive strategies used by better teams imply more intense and organized collective processes in order to recover the ball directly from the opposing team. Furthermore, defending away from own goal and near the opponent’s one seems to be associated with success in elite soccer.

Effects of match situational variables on possession: The case of England Premier League season 2015/16

“…The match location variable influenced independently the possession during the England Premier League 2015/16, i.e., home matches had more possession than away matches (~ 7%). Researches on home advantage in soccer have received more attention in the last years (e.g., 3,8,14,20 ). Different international tournaments have presented home advantage on performance indicators.…”

“…"weak" or "strong" and their position on league rankings), and match status (if winning, losing or drawing) were identified as the most important situational variables that dictates possession patterns [9][10][11][12][13] . Concerning match location, playing home presented stronger interaction with team possession than playing away 6,8,14 , which might be explained by a more familiar environment and a more consistent style of play 15,16 . The quality of opposition is also a determinant variable when investigating possession in soccer 12,16 .…”

Performance profiles of football teams in the UEFA Champions League considering situational efficiency

“…Our results also showed that high-level teams' home and away differences mainly appeared in the variables related to scoring and defending; however, significant differences were observed in most of variables for intermediate-and low-level teams. It may be the reason that, comparing to inferior teams, high-level teams tend to employ more pro-active defensive strategies and they apply more actions aiming directly to recovery the ball from opponent's half of pitch which may lead to more chances of scoring (Almeida et al, 2014). As well, these findings confirmed the conclusion of Lago-Peñas and Lago-Ballesteros (2011, p. 470) that indicated "teams described as superior and those described as inferior did not experience the same home advantage", which is to say that high-level teams' technical and tactical performance is more stable either playing home or away than the intermediate and low level teams.…”

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“…Therefore, the quality of opponent is regarded as a crucial variable determining the performance indicator [12]. Furthermore, home-field advantage is also reckoned as one of situational variables [13,14]. It is well-known that, when playing against the same opponent, winning in the away match reflects a better result than in the home match.…”