In the first championship round of 2019-20 Danish Superliga, Nordsjaelland hosted FC Copenhagen for the second time this season. Copenhagen having done the double over their opponents in the regular season came to the postseason on the back of a strong finish. Nordsjaelland, on the other hand, had to bounce back after their 1-0 defeat to the league leaders FC Midtjylland. This tactical analysis will walk us through the tactics used by both the teams.
The game turned out to be an entertaining fixture, with both teams sharing the points after a 1-1 draw. But was it an equal affair? Let’s find out from this analysis.
Lineups
Nordsjaelland lined up in a 3-4-3 formation, the one that they used in their previous loss to FC Midtjylland. Ulrik Jenssen’s red card in that game meant that he was suspended for this one. The 19-year-old, Ivan Mesík was drafted into the left-centre back position in place of Jenssen. In another change, Isaac Atanga replaced Kamal Sulemana and was brought in as the striker. This allowed Damsgaard to move into the left-wing.
Copenhagen’s without possession
Copenhagen decided to keep a mid-block this game and were pretty much conservative in their approach against the league’s highest scorers, having just 37% possession. They had a PPDA value of 17 in the match, which went up to 22.1 in the first half. Since they played with a two man forward line, they were surely not going to press Nordsjaelland’s centre-backs well. This was due to Nordsjaelland outnumbering Copenhagen with their 3 centre-backs forming a 3v2 situation. So Solbakken decided to position his forwards in such a way that they cut off passing lanes to the two central midfielders of Nordsjaelland.
In the image above we can see the average positions of those players, playing very centrally to block central passing lanes.
Nordsjaelland’s plan during build-up
Though Copenhagen tried to make life difficult for Nordsjaelland to build their play, they still found a way to succeed. They split their centre-backs very wide that middle one occupied the central space. The wide centre-back each occupied the left and right half-spaces and sometimes the wing spaces too.
Copenhagen’s direct approach
Copenhagen came out with a very direct approach that saw them use long balls to progress the ball upfield. They decided not to build from the back and instead launch long balls. In the image below we can see the passes made by the goalkeeper of Copenhagen in the match.
We can see a lot of long balls played by him where few of them are successful and others unsuccessful. They also decided with a direct throw-in into the box instead of working their way. When we look at the key passes that they have created most of them are from corners and direct throw-ins. The key passes made by them are given in the image below.
Eventually, their goal came from a corner kick when J. Stage put the ball into the net following a cross from Pep Biel. During their long balls, they decided to squeeze all their players to a particular side of the pitch. This ensured they could easily win the 2nd balls after the long ball was launched. We can see that in the image below when they oriented their players to just one flank.
Their ability to win aerial duels gave them an edge in winning these long balls and launching an attack. In the image, we can see that the striker engages in a duel with the centre-back after which Copenhagen win the 2nd ball and start their attack.
Apart from direct attacks, they also tried to break their play in the midfield using their mid-block. Once they recover the ball they start their counter-attack. In the image below, we can see the Copenhagen players closing down Mesík, who has the ball. This forces Mesík to play a wrong pass, indicated by the red arrow, into an unoccupied space. Copenhagen then start their counter-attack, 2nd image, which later results in a corner and then a goal.
Nordsjaelland’s high press
Nordsjaelland came into this game with a plan of implementing possession-based and high-intensity football. From the word go they were determined in winning the ball back from Copenhagen. They would also counter-press immediately after losing the ball. They allowed 13.2 PPDA in the first half and 12.9 PPDA in the 2nd half. Their overall PPDA of 13 in the match is much less than that of Copenhagen (17.4). We can see their press in the following images.
Two of the front three would press the two centre-backs of the opposition, like in the above image. One among them will be the striker and the other forward would press depending on the location of the ball. If the ball is in the right flank, then the right-forward would press the left CB and the striker covers the right CB. The right wing-back then goes up high to press the left-back. Eventually, the two midfielders press their counterparts and the other forward marks the right-back. The same pattern takes place when the ball is in the other flank and the players orient themselves accordingly.
In the chart below, we can see the recoveries made by Norsdjaelland in the 1st half. Most of their recoveries are in the middle-third and almost 17 % of their recoveries came in the final third.
After their goal, Norsdjaelland shifted into a 3-5-2 formation by bringing Diomande into the midfield and Sulemana into the LWB position. This was done to protect their midfield by giving them a 3v2 advantage, like in the image below.
Nordsjaelland create tons of chances and misses big ones
Like said before, Nordsjaelland found one way or the other to create chances. They kept continuously pressurizing Copenhagen and created many big chances. They made 12 key passes and completed 3 out of 8 smart passes in the match. Their overall xG in the game was as high as 3.1 compared to that of 1.03 of that of Copenhagen. Let’s analyze how they created their big chances. Most of their big chances came from the winger or the wing back using cut-backs or crosses.
In the image above we can see that after passing the ball to Damsgaard, Atanga makes a run (red arrow). Immediately Damsgaard spots this and plays a ball over the top of the defence to Atanga. Atanga then cut-backs the ball for goal scoring chances. Eventually, the keeper makes the save, but Nordsjaelland got an opportunity from the rebound but Thychosen fluffs an open-goal chance and shoots it over the crossbar (see in the image below). This shot had an xG of 0.83.
Ironically, their only goal of the match came from a very unlikely position and the xG of that goal was just 0.04 (11th row in the above table). We can see the location of that goal in the image below and also we can see how acute the angle is (circled).
Copenhagen’s search for a late winner
Copenhagen tried to attack much more after conceding a goal. They showed much more desire later to win the match. Their PPDA in the last 15 minutes went down to 9.4. The number of attacks per minute also significantly increased for them after the goal, from 0.33 to 0.58. Whereas in the same period, it dropped from 0.73 to 0.37 for Nordsjaelland. We can see the difference in the quality of the shots before and after 70 minutes in the following image.
Their xG/shot before conceding the goal was 0.04 and it rose to 0.11 after conceding. Especially in the last five to six minutes, they had four or five good chances of putting the game to bed. But Nordsjaelland’s resolute defending kept the scores level at full-time.
Conclusion
Nordsjaelland should be banging their heads on not taking three vital points home. The analysis showed that they created many big chances but failed to capitalize on them. Copenhagen’s sturdy approach coupled with some fine saves helped them to gain a point from the match. They could have even grabbed the three points in the end but a draw was the maximum they deserved.
Copenhagen sits in 2nd place at 57 points chasing FC Midtjylland, who sit 11 points ahead of their rivals. While a UEFA Champions League spot seems a far sight for them considering the form of their rivals. A place in the Europa League will surely be cemented if they can manage to win another few games. Nordsjaelland, on the other hand, sit 6 points behind the Europa spots with 9 games to go. It’ll be a vital final few weeks for them and not late until both teams meet again. Both the teams will be looking to grab a win in their next fixtures.