BVBDortmundClub page
VILVillarrealClub page
Squad value€564.45m
Squad value€331.6m
Key playerNico Schlotterbeck
Key playerAlberto Moleiro
Head coachNiko Kovac
Head coachIñigo Pérez
Villarreal break fast and Dortmund leave a high line to break into.
They squeeze high up the pitch and go hunting for the ball straight away. The wide men often tuck inside rather than hugging the touchline, so the middle of the pitch gets crowded.
“The press remained aggressive, Guirassy remained the reference point, and Kovač increasingly used inverted wing-backs to manufacture central overloads.”Dortmund push their whole defence a long way up the field. It works when they win the ball back early, but leave one pass through them and there is a lot of grass behind.
“The high press worked rather well, even if the equally high defensive line naturally invited counters.”When Kovac turns it up they keep the ball and send more bodies forward.
“They kept the ball more assertively, attacked with greater aggression and pushed more bodies forward.”The weak spot is the switch the other way. When they lose it after a good spell, they are slow to get back and chase, and that is when goals go in against them — their own coach says so.
“Y cuando tienes que acelerar para defender al rival, hay cierto letargo.”And when you have to get up to speed to defend against the opposition, there's a certain sluggishness. our translation
A new coach is still bedding his ideas in, and when things stall he tells them to make the game messy — so expect long stretches of controlled football broken up by deliberate chaos.
“En la segunda, hemos buscado generar más caos, aunque por momentos demasiado”In the second half we looked to create more chaos, though at times too much our translation
Their best moments come the instant they win the ball back — two or three passes and they are running at your defence.
“El Villarreal comenzó muy bien la segunda parte y continuó haciendo daño mediante las transiciones rápidas.”Villarreal began the second half very well and went on doing damage through fast transitions. our translation