Match Analyses: Celtic Park, 31.10.2017. 20:45

Referee: Danny Makkelie

Attendance: 58269

CELTIC FC

Coach: Brendan Rodgers

Playing System: 4-2-3-1

FC BAYERN MUNICH

Coach: Jupp Heynckes

Playing System: 4-2-3-1

Celtic FC Defence

Celtic tried to defend what they’ve got and start counter-attacks from these. The distance between the defensive units was about 7-9 metres. They paid attention of the players trying to get in between the lines and the home players had to pick up the Bayern player who was making the most dangerous run. The away team tried to play in a fluid system when they had possession in the home team’s half so Celtic had to be compact and solid. They often let Bayern push up so high that the only front man (most of the times Dembélé) caused serious trouble. The main concept was to defend and start attacks from those deep areas. Rodgers knew that with the home crowd behind the team it could be possible to surprise the bigger team. 

FC Bayern Munich Defence

Bayern was patient and seemed quite defensive more than before. This might have been Jupp’s idea to leave the opponent come forward and leave space behind them. Bayern wants to go back to their historical and truly effective tactics when they won the treble so Heycnkes tries to re-implement the direct attacks instead of the possession-based attacks. It could be seen often that Robben stepped back to become a midfield five in defence. Bayern only left Coman or James forward. By letting the opponent players come forward, Bayern could start fast attacks. Otherwise this tactics sometimes gave confidence for the home players to play and risk even when they were outnumbered. 

Celtic FC Attack 

The previous meeting of the two teams ended in a 3-0 win for Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena. This game was the next round but now, in Scotland. Celtic started with a massive defensive wall, letting the away players play their possession-based game and then start a fast counter-attack exploiting the empty spaces behind the Bayern players. Brendan Rodgers knew what Bayern players are capable of so they let them spread the field, take their positions and defend as a unit against this side. Most of the times, they let the wing-backs step into the midfield with the ball, join the attack and then set up a trap for them. After gaining possession, the two wide players had to be quicker than the defenders running towards their own goal. By this, Alaba and Rafinha couldn’t get back in time and the two central defenders (Süle and Boateng) were too far away from each other. In this situation (on the picture) Süle had to take care of the possible pass towards Dembélé (who attacked the space directly in between the split defenders) and towards the flank.
This was the home team’s main concept when attacking. If they couldn’t exploit these areas and couldn’t start fast-breaking attacks, they tried to slow the game down and possess the ball as Bayern sometimes got back in defence instead of pressing high. This led to a quite passive ball possession and attack building in the home side.

FC Bayern Munich Attack

Away Team Attack 1

Bayern tried to possess the ball and do it on the other half. Heynckes is now in a process to show the Bavarian crowd what he can do. So he tries to bring back the direct football style instead of only ball possession. He organised the attacking movements for long balls and played with more playmakers in the midfield. He also put an emphasis on the fast and hard-working wing players. He had to pay attention to the resting of the players so there were many important players missing like Lewandowski or Müller. He then played without a real striker. Bayern needed good and quality interchange movements from the attackers to open up and exploit empty spaces constantly. The width was given by the two wingers who dragged their defenders out of their optimal position. There was always a players coming towards the ball (support) and a players going away from it into an empty space. There was nobody to pick up and keep the Number 9 position as Lewandowski does it most of the times.

Away Team Attack 2 

To break-up the home team’s defensive unit and get behind, Bayern sometimes used long balls. As it was mentioned there was always one player going in-behind the defence and at least one coming towards the player on the ball. The task was to find the right moment: when the defence was running forward, there could be a long ball in behind them. When the defence was stepping back to close down the space behind them, the player on the ball should have made a short pass and continue the possession.

Summary

When Jupp Henckes took over after Ancellotti, players and the fans expected too much from him. He is a great manager though, but he needs time again to re-build confidence and to show what he can coach. He will surely have a fingerprint again, soon. This game was the mixture of the Heynckes football philosophy and the game Bayern played in the recent years.
Brendan Rodgers tries to play in such a spectacular way with his teams but he knows the difference between Bayern and his actual team. It was great to see that he could organise defending this deep so that Bayern players couldn’t outplay them. They weren’t that accurate also, otherwise it could have been another game as they had goal-scoring chances right in the beginning of the game.