This evening, Bilbao will play host to the 2023/24 UEFA Women’s Champions League Final, as Barcelona attempt to win a second straight European Cup, and Lyon try to regain the title they won two years ago, in 2021/22.
These two sides, Barcelona and Lyon, have been unrivalled in Europe over the last decade, with Lyon claiming six of the last eight UEFA Women’s Champions League titles and Barcelona winning the other two during that time period.
So, this sets the stage for a prestigious final tonight.
However, the 2023/24 UEFA Women’s Champions League has been the platform for many stories to play out, such as the progress of Norwegian side Brann Kvinner and Swedish outfit BK Häcken to the quarter-finals amid the failure of any German side to progress beyond the group stage.
Plenty of bright young talent has talent to the field, too, during the course of this year’s UEFA Women’s Champions League tournament — and these are the stories we’re going to focus on as we prepare for this season’s edition of the continent’s elite women’s football competition to come to an end.
We’ve chosen five U23 players who stood out immensely for their quality performances during the 2023/24 UEFA Women’s Champions League campaign all over the pitch, with one goalkeeper, one central defender, one central midfielder and two attackers included in our UWCL-focused scout report.
We’ll provide some in-depth analysis of the five chosen players’ key qualities and traits, as well as how each of them compliments their respective team’s tactics.
Regina van Eijk, 22 years old, Ajax
The first player we’re going to analyse is Ajax goalkeeper Regina van Eijk. The Amsterdam-based club progressed as far as the quarter-finals in this season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League competition, ultimately falling to the sword of Emma Hayes’ Chelsea in that stage.
Their achievements were largely attributed to the tremendous work of head coach Suzanne Bakker, who’s set to embark on a new challenge next season.
However, stopper Van Eijk (173cm/5’8”) also deserves plenty of credit for her contributions to the Dutch team’s success.
Here, we can see that based on facing 13.02 non-penalty xG, Van Eijk managed to prevent 1.02 goals, not a bad number that ranks her quite nicely among her peers of all ages in the competition this term—an impressive feat for a 22-year-old relatively new to the world of top-class first-team football.
In addition, Van Eijk had a 69.23% save rate for the 2023/24 UWCL campaign, again ranking well amongst her peers in this metric. She faced 39 shots during the UWCL this term—a relatively high number in the competition.
With some speculation occurring, it’ll be interesting to see if Van Eijk remains an Ajax player next season or if she joins Suzanne Bakker in setting off for a new challenge. If she does decide to opt for the latter, she should have plenty of good clubs waiting to welcome her in with open arms.
Célina Ould-Hocine, 22 years old, Paris FC
Next up on our list is a young centre-back from Paris FC, born in Paris, Célina Ould-Hocine. Ould-Hocine (167cm/5’6”) managed to put together a stellar UWCL campaign with her club despite them exiting in the group stage due to some tough competition in the form of the aforementioned Ajax and Chelsea, so we had to give her some credit on the day of the Final for being a standout in her position among those 23 and under.
Paris FC defended with a relatively high line in the UWCL, ending up with the fourth-lowest PPDA (8.06) in the competition. Hence, the high average defensive line on display for Ould-Hocine in figure 2 — the centre-back’s 2023/24 defensive territory map.
She dealt well being tasked with defending in a relatively high line, however, ending her UWCL campaign with 73.33% defensive duel success from 8.18 defensive duels per 90 as well as 8.0 interceptions per 90 — indicating her suitability for such a tactic and one reason why she stood out so much among the competition this term.
In addition, Ould-Hocine did well aerially, winning 69.23% of her 2.36 aerial duels per game.
In-possession was a similar story, with Ould-Hocine performing well in the progressive pass department, completing 52.27% of her 8.0 progressive passes per 90. She was well able to get on the ball, normally in the right centre-back position as visualised above, get her head up and break lines with her penetrative passing qualities, often creating problems for the opposition through her ability to set her teammates up in good areas quite frequently.
With Paris FC making it to the 2024/25 UWCL qualifiers through their impressive Division 1 Féminine third-place finish, perhaps Ould-Hocine can build on this performance in next season’s competition following an excellent showing this term.
Justine Kielland, 21 years old, Brann Kvinner
Brann Kvinner have enjoyed a successful period under head coach Martin Ho, who led them to the UWCL group stage for the first time, making them the first Norwegian side to achieve that feat.
One player who has proven vital to the team’s success during this time is 21-year-old midfielder Justine Kielland (166cm/5’5”), a well-rounded central midfielder with a range of qualities in and out of possession.
Firstly, without the ball, Kielland engaged in 10.59 defensive duels per 90 in the Champions League, coming out victorious from 69.23% of those engagements. She also completed 5.57 interceptions per 90 during the tournament.
Her defensive territory map, visualised above, highlights the prime locations of her defensive actions, primarily around the centre circle but mainly inside her team’s own half. This is a result of her deep midfield positioning—she performs well when tasked with sitting off, relying on her ability to read the game and guard the backline from the opposition’s threat.
On the ball, Kielland was a critical component for her team in the ball progression phase, completing 61.9% of her 8.55 progressive passes per 90.
Kielland was useful not just in terms of ball progression but also ball retention, and her team frequently played it to her in deeper areas when circulating possession around and searching for an opening to move the ball forward.
She made an impressive average of 77.65 passes per 90 while maintaining a high 87.76% pass success rate, highlighting her quality in this regard.
One of the most well-rounded midfielders in the competition this term with goal contributions in her as well, Kielland is certainly one of the young stars from this season’s Champions League.
Signe Gaupset, 18 years old, Brann Kvinner
Sticking with Brann, who boasted one of the best young teams in Europe this past season, we’re moving slightly further upfield to 18-year-old Signe Gaupset (173cm/5’8”), who typically occupies the right-wing position for Ho’s team but can also contribute on the opposite side of the pitch or even centrally.
Capable of playing with both feet, Gaupset is a highly versatile attacking asset who produced two assists, one goal, 1.65 expected assists (xA) and 1.19 expected goals (xG) during the Champions League this term for Brann.
Figure 6 highlights her shot assists from the campaign, with her playmaking occurring in a wide variety of locations.
Similarly, Gaupset’s dribbles and crosses covered the width of the final third, with some occurring in deeper areas; she enjoys playing with a fair degree of freedom, which plays a significant role here.
Gaupset is a high-volume dribbler. Barcelona’s Caroline Graham-Hansen is the only right-winger to have made more dribbles per game than the Brann woman. She also successfully completed 50% of her 5.37 dribbles per 90 in the UWCL this past term—a very respectable number when compared with her peers, regardless of age.
At just 18 years old, she’s the youngest player included in this article and undoubtedly represents a major star of the future. Even more prestigious clubs around the world are sure to be tracking her progress very closely.
Salma Paralluelo, 20 years old, Barcelona
Last but not least, Barcelona forward Salma Paralluelo (174cm/5’9”) is a potential star of this evening’s UWCL Final. She entered the 2023/24 club campaign after a stunning 2023 FIFA World Cup, in which she earned the Young Player of the Tournament award; the Spanish attacker has only gone from strength to strength since then, entering the Champions League Final as the tournament’s third-highest goalscorer and the joint-top scorer for Barca.
Indeed, goalscoring is a key aspect of Paralluelo’s game. The 20-year-old thrives as a finisher and exhibits decent shot selection, as indicated by her tournament shot map in Figure 8.
She could probably aim to place the ball even further into the corners and convert even more of her chances. Still, at the moment, she’s finishing at an excellent rate as well as generating plenty of goalscoring chances, with her 4.26 shots per 90 the third-highest in the competition.
Paralluelo is another high-volume dribbler, with 5.27 dribbles per 90 to her name in the Champions League this season, while she’s also completed 48.94% of those dribbles successfully.
This has translated into 33 penetrating carries, which have proven key for Barcelona in their chance creation and, ultimately, achievement of reaching the Champions League Final.
Paralluelo is a very well-rounded attacker and one of the best players from this season’s UWCL. She’ll have been a major concern and point of focus for Lyon ahead of this evening’s final and will remain a key point of consideration for all teams coming up against her for the foreseeable future, given the quality already evident in the 20-year-old’s game and what she’s achieved already in her young career.
Conclusion
All five players featured in our tactical analysis were clear standouts among the younger players to have featured in this past season’s UWCL and should build on that to make themselves staples of the competition for the future.
We expect to see plenty more from these young talents who’ve all given a great account of themselves among Europe’s elite at quite young ages, respectively.
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