Champions League stats to know: Man City’s Haaland dependency, Liverpool’s defense vs. Real Madrid and more
By Wednesday evening, this season’s Champions League quarter-finalists will be determined. You can follow all the action on Tuesday and Wednesday at Paramount+. Milan, Benfica, Chelsea and Bayern Munich secured their positions last week, with half the field already set up.
Before the action begins, here is one key piece of information to know about each team that will help determine who is going to pass or go home.
1. Manchester vs RB Leipzig
Manchester: Erling Haaland34 goals
It’s simple. He has an astounding 34 goals in 35 games. This means that Haaland has scored 36.5% of all Manchester City goals in all competitions. It also means that Pep Guardiola’s team is very different from how it worked before. last season, Kevin de Bruyne led City with 15 goals in all competitions. This accounted for 15.6% of all City goals. You wouldn’t exactly call City a one-man team. Almost two-thirds of their goals are scored by someone who is not called Haaland, but it is clear that this team is in the business of feeding the big man.
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RB Leipzig: Dominik Soboslai, 13 assists
Man City may have a famous player and reserve group, but RB Leipzig spread the love around. In all competitions, four players have scored nine or more goals: Christopher Nkunku, Timo Werner, Andres Silva and Emil Forsberg. But Soboslai conducts a symphony with 13 gears. He has eight assists when only Bundesliga stats are filtered out, which is twice as many as anyone else on his team and tied for second place in the league, behind only Randal Colo Muani (we’d have more info on him later). , but he is suspended for the Frankfurt match against Napoli).
But while most assist-heavy players far exceed their expected assists (e.g. Kolo Muani’s xGA is 3.5), Soboslaj’s overall score is an impressive 6.6, which is also a solid result for second place in the Bundesliga. this time behind only Jonas Hoffmann of Borussia Mönchengladbach who has seven assists at 7.1 xGA. It’s hard to predict which Leipzig might score, but whoever it is, there’s a good chance Soboslai got the ball.
2. FC Porto against Inter
FC Porto: Evanilson xG + xGA at 90, 0.97
Evanilson may not return to Porto’s starting XI due to a muscle injury and that’s a huge problem. Whether he’s a starter or a super substitute, he has numbers that scream “breakout star” thanks to his massive 0.78 xG in 90 minutes. Since he is a centre-forward, it’s a little odd that he is responsible for 0.19 expected assists compared to the same number. However, it will be difficult for Porto to replace his production even with the always capable Mehdi Taremi on hand.
Inter: 3.87 xG vs Spezia
On Friday, Inter suffered a shocking 2-1 loss to Spezia, a result against a weak opponent that, under normal circumstances, would have caused all sorts of fears. Then take a look at that shot map again.
twenty3
That’s 28 shots at 3.87xG for those of you keeping score at home. This is an xG season record and second in total shots for the entire season. So I think they are probably fine. Sometimes the ball, funny as it may seem, just misses the net.
3. Real Madrid vs. Liverpool
Liverpool: Four matches missed under 1.0 xG
Football is a funny old game. After losing 5-2 to Real Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League, Liverpool seem to have built up their defence. They haven’t conceded more than 1.0 xG since this match. Prior to this four-game streak, they had only done so seven times the entire season. Four of the seven came in the Champions League group stage: twice against Rangers, once against Ajax and once in dead rubber against Napoli (it should be noted that Napoli scored an exorbitant total of 4.0 xG in the decider ). And yet in these four matches, Liverpool managed to lose once Bournemouth and draw once against crystal palace. Of course, they also lost 7-0 against Manchester United. So who knows.
Real Madrid: nine shots
It took Real Madrid just nine shots to score five against Liverpool. This was their lowest result in their last 16 matches. It was one of four times that there were fewer than 10 shots this season. One of the other three was in a cup match against a team from a lower division, where it can be assumed they were mostly just doing moves. The other two were against Barcelona and against Atlético Madrid. So Liverpool seem to have done a lot of things right against Real Madrid, except for the most important one. Real Madrid have an overwhelming lead in those two leagues, but it’s just impossible not to feel that these teams are very, very strange. Who knows what might happen.
4. Napoli vs Eintracht Frankfurt
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Source: www.cbssports.com
