Paris FC suffered from a frustrating defeat against the Swedish BK Häcken in the first fixture of the UEFA Women’s Champions League group stage. In contrast, BK Häcken secured their first important win away at the Stade Charléty in a group that includes Paris FC, Chelsea and Real Madrid. Knowing that this might be the most powerful and complicated group in the group stage, Häcken’s win in an away fixture against a tough team like Paris FC gets more value and can represent an excellent start for the Swedish, especially if they succeed in keeping their good run of form going during the next difficult fixtures of the UWCL.
On the other side, Paris FC should surely focus on studying what went wrong in this match and try to fix it in order to avoid losing more points against tougher teams like Chelsea and Real Madrid. In order to achieve this, Paris FC will definitely have to make extra efforts and give more than 100% in each of the upcoming games to start winning valuable points, knowing that their level is a bit lower than Chelsea and Real Madrid.
To make up for this loss, Paris FC will have to win against Häcken in the away game in Sweden since that match is the most suitable opportunity for winning points in comparison with the other remaining games. But at the same time, winning against Häcken in Sweden will not be an easy task for Paris FC, and they will clearly have to work hard and avoid underestimation to be able to snatch a win.
Things are not actually going as planned for Paris FC, but they showed on numerous occasions before that they can create surprises even against big teams. The best example of this is their exclusion of teams like Arsenal and Wolfsburg in the preliminary phase of the tournament.
In this tactical analysis article, we will be exploring what happened in this match while studying both teams’ tactics and line-ups. The analysis will also aim to identify Paris FC’s weaknesses and what they lacked in their performance to win this match while also considering Häcken’s strengths and how they scored two goals without conceding more than a penalty.
Line-ups
Sandrine Soubeyrand started this opening group stage match with the usual 4-2-3-1 formation using Chiamaka Nnadozie as a goalkeeper, Julie Soyer as a right-back, Célina Ould Hocine and Théa Gréboval as centre-backs, and Lou Valérie Bogaert as a left-back. The midfield comprised Daphné Corboz and Kaja Korošec positioned as central midfielders, Clara Matéo and Julie Dufour on both wings. At the same time, Gaëtane Thiney played as an advanced playmaker just behind the striker Mathilde Bourdieu.
On the other hand, Mak Adam Lind opted for the 4-2-3-1 formation as well, with Jennifer Falk as a goalkeeper, Saara Katariina Kosola as a right-back, Josefine Rybrink and Aivi Luik as centre-backs and Elma Novah Junttila-Nelhage as a left-back. In midfield, Lind used both Marika Bergman-Lundin and Filippa Curmark as central midfielders, Anna Anvegård and Anna Sandberg on the wings, and Rosa Kafaji as a playmaker behind the team’s striker, Aisha Masaka.
Häcken’s exploitation of Paris FC’s weaknesses
Häcken’s performance was characterised by patience and exploitation of Paris FC’s mistakes, especially the defensive ones. Concretisation in attack and defensive resistance to Paris FC’s recurrent attacks were the keys to Häcken’s surprising win over the French side. Häcken conceded 21 shots from Paris FC during this match, with seven of them being on target. Yet, they were still able to avoid conceding goals thanks to their compact defending.
Also, whenever Paris FC succeeded in breaking Häcken’s defensive line, Falk was always ready to get out of her goal and intercept the ball before Paris FC’s attacking players got the time needed to control and shoot on goal. This helped Häcken immensely in reducing Paris FC’s attacking danger, as Falk always covered the distance left between the defensive line and the goalkeeper with the right timing.
The following chance highlights Falk’s excellent intervention with a confident attempt to limit the possible shooting trajectories for Bourdieu, which obliged the latter to shoot off target and miss a very threatening goalscoring opportunity. The fact that Falk was attentive throughout the match and had rapid and efficient reflexes saved Häcken from conceding goals and played a big part in helping the team snatch a vital win.
Credits: DAZN.
At the same time, Häcken were realistic enough upfront as they succeeded in exploiting all the created chances with an average of 100%. Häcken were able to create six shooting opportunities. Then, all six shots were on target, proving Häcken’s outstanding attacking performance and concretisation of their not-so-many opportunities throughout the match.
This first goal action, for instance, shows clearly how accurate Häcken were from an attacking perspective during this match since they knew that every chance counts and that it would not be too easy to reach Paris FC’s goal frequently, especially when playing at their stadium. That’s why motivated the players to be more crucial whenever they reached their opponent’s final third, thanks to the accurate key passes in that dangerous area and the quick movements of the attacking players.
At the same time, exploring a few Paris FC defensive mistakes was crucial, especially in the first goal action when both Anvegård and Kafaji exploited the wrongly-timed anticipation attempt from Ould Hocine. The latter left a remarkable gap when anticipating her direct opponent’s movement, leaving much space for Kafaji, who Anvegård very quickly noticed.
Häcken’s right winger, therefore, provided an excellent through pass into space and turned into an assist to Kafaji, who did not overcomplicate things and finished the action with power and precision.
Credits: DAZN.
Although Häcken conceded some very dangerous chances and made some passing mistakes in their own half, they did not lose their attacking fluidity, concentration and dynamism. In the second half, they did their best to punish Paris FC by using counter-attacks to surprise their opponent’s high defensive bloc. They succeeded in doing so mainly thanks to their quickly executed counter-attacks and their midfielders’ vision and ability to spot the spaces behind this high defence.
Bergman-Lundin’s through pass in this second goal action deserves all the credit as it helped Sandberg receive the ball in a perfect situation and be able to shoot without much disturbance, especially when knowing that Sandberg’s direct marker Soyer was distracted by the ball and left her direct opponent behind when the pass was being launched.
Credits: DAZN.
Apart from a few defensive errors, especially passing ones, we can say that Häcken played an intelligent game against Paris FC and knew precisely how to exploit their critical moments in the match with a lot of attacking realism and finishing accuracy.
Paris FC’s tactical errors and possible improvements
Paris FC’s performance, however, lacked clinical finishing and defensive attention as they committed a few defensive mistakes that cost them too much. Moreover, the lack of experience of certain players played a role in making Paris FC struggle, especially from a defensive perspective during the few Häcken’s big occasions.
Nevertheless, we cannot argue that Paris FC did not give their best in this match just because they lost. They were clearly the dominant side in terms of possession with 58.63% and, more importantly, with 21 shots in total.
This explains that Paris FC had more chances to find Häcken’s goal but were not successful in doing so because all of Paris FC’s attacking players struggled to overcome Flak’s obstacle. They could intercept Häcken’s passes in their own half and launch dangerous counter-attacks like the one shown below. Yet, they were always predictable in terms of shooting. After missing one or two chances already, Dufour could have tried new ideas during this action in order to confuse Flak and be less predictable to increase her goalscoring chances.
Feinting and showing that she is planning to shoot towards the left angle before shooting towards the right one, for instance, could have easily confused Flak as it would do so to any goalkeeper if executed quickly and with the correct technique.
Credits: DAZN.
Moreover, some final choices were totally wrong for Paris FC and obliged them to lose their chances in vain. The team will have to work harder on when players need to be a bit egoistic and go for shooting and when it is better to provide a pass or assist to a better-positioned teammate.
This aspect represents a problem for Paris FC as some of the players tend to pass when they have to finish the action by themselves, as Dufour did in this example when she had the opportunity to score but decided to provide a through pass to a teammate who was marked and not well positioned to receive a similar pass.
Credits: DAZN.
From a defensive perspective, many defensive errors should not occur from a team like Paris FC, as these were mainly marking errors related to distraction and a lack of concentration. Both Soyer and Ould Hocine committed heavy marking mistakes as the first left her direct marker behind her, and the latter tried to anticipate a pass and left a considerable space behind her that was exploited quickly by the opponent.
It is also true that Paris FC did their best after scoring their first goal to get back in the match and try to add a second goal while remaining compact at the back. However, after scoring their first goal, they could only secure their defence and receive no dangerous chances. But, they could not break Häcken’s excellent defence or find ways to score apart from the penalty they had.
Conclusion
Paris FC will have to be much more clinical in attack if they want to go far in this competition and surpass the group stage phase because every chance counts, and missing numerous chances per game will not help them win points against tough opponents like the ones they are yet to face. At the same time, a lot of defensive compactness and attention will be needed in order to avoid surprises.
For Häcken, the team performed very well in this match, and they deserve their win, especially from an attacking perspective. At the same time, they will have to work on making fewer passing mistakes in their own half because such mistakes can put them into much trouble against teams like Chelsea and Real Madrid.
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