Thursday, 18.06.2026
Which ideology will shape the football of the future? The 2026 Champions League final was supposed to provide answers to this question. After all, FC Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain had reached the final, two teams whose playing philosophies could hardly seem more different at first glance.
A solid start was masked by an overly passive 5-4-1 and ultimately ended in a 5-1 defeat for Dino Toppmöller and Eintracht Frankfurt.
Eintracht Frankfurt won their opening Champions League matchday with a 5-1 victory over Galatasaray Istanbul. After about ten minutes, Frankfurt were trailing 0-1, but thanks in part to adjusted pressing, they were able to turn the game around. What follows is an aspect analysis of Frankfurt’s attacking press against the Istanbul side’s build-up play.
After finishing 2nd last season, Shakhtar Donetsk hired esteemed, upcoming Italian manager Roberto de Zerbi. The ambitious and unique playing style demonstrated most notably at Sassuolo earned him acclaim for his tactical acumen, ending his tenure at the Sassuolo with an 8th place finish and a respectable 62 points. This article will investigate the rationale behind his build-up preferences and how that is translating to his new side.
Thomas Tuchel’s PSG side faced Nagelsmann’s RB Leipzig in the first Champions league semi-final on Tuesday evening. Whilst both sides came through their quarter-finals with late winners, PSG did so fulfilling their favourites tag with Leipzig instead causing an upset.
The Champions League quarter finals treated us to some interesting match-ups over the past few days, two being Leipzig’s victory over Atletico Madrid and Lyon’s shock result over Manchester City.
To an extent, both performances in possession can be explained by the importance of depth options to threaten in-behind. This collaborative analysis between MV and JD will explain their role in Leipzig’s in-possession strategy, while the lack of options led to City struggling against Lyon’s 5-3-2.
Early in the 2017/2018 season, Julian Nagelsmann met Jurgen Klopp in opposing dugouts for the first time. The young coach demonstrated some effective ways of playing against Liverpool’s narrow 4-3-3 press using their 3-1-4-2. This analysis will breakdown those tactics, but does it constitute as a retro analysis?
During Barcelona’s Champions League last-16 first-leg tie vs Napoli, their high-pressing strategy yielded mixed results.
Frenkie de Jong broke through onto the world stage in a standout 2018/19 season for Ajax, earning him a big money transfer to Barcelona this past summer. He has been one of the best players in world football over the last year.
After a chaotic 1st half, Liverpool finally managed to beat Salzburg, thanks to Klopp’s half-time adjustments, to balance the game’s dynamics.
