UEFA Champions League 2020/21: Juventus vs Dynamo Kyiv – tactical analysis

Juventus secured their fourth win in the UEFA Champions League group stage against Dynamo Kyiv , who are now officially out of the competition and who will fight for the third spot with Ferencváros in order to know who will qualify to the UEFA Europa League knockout phase.

For Juventus, this win was important in terms of gaining more confidence and more importantly in continuing their battle with Barcelona over the first spot of the group. Even though beating Barcelona at Camp Nou with a big goal difference sounds unlikely, Andera Pirlo’s team will do their best to play all their cards during their final group stage fixture hoping to have luck by their side.

In this tactical analysis article, I will focus on Juventus’ attacking tactics and performance while making an extensive analysis of what happened during this match and why Dynamo Kyiv lost with three goals. 

Lineups

Andrea Pirlo opted for a 4-4-2 formation in this match with Wojciech Szczęsny as a goalkeeper, Merih Demiral as a right-back, Leonardo Bonucci and Matthijs de Ligt as centre-backs and Alex Sandro as a left-back.

The midfield was composed of Federico Chiesa on the right-wing, Weston McKennie and Rodrigo Bentancur as central midfielders and Aaron Ramsey as a left winger, while Cristiano Ronaldo and Álvaro Morata formed the attacking duo.

For the visitors, Mircea Lucescu started the match with a 4-1-4-1 formation with Heorhiy Bushchan as a goalkeeper, a defensive line formed of Tomasz Kędziora as a right-back, Illya Zabarnyi and Denys Popov as centre-backs and Vitaliy Mykolenko on the left flank.

Ahead of them played the captain Serhiy Sydorchuk who was the defensive midfielder and then the midfielder line included Viktor Tsyhankov as a right winger, Volodymyr Shepelev and Mykola Shaparenko as central midfielders and Gerson Rodrigues on the left-wing while Benjamin Verbič was the team’s striker. 

Juventus’ attacking performance

Juventus started this match with determination to score, but found a well-organised opponent and therefore they had difficulties in threatening Dynamo Kyiv’s goalkeeper in the first 20 minutes even though they had some good opportunities. The team relied on Morata as a forward, and Ronaldo often moved to the left-wing to receive the ball and either cross or attempt to cut inside and shoot. 

And on the other side, Chiesa was the player who tried to cross as well, so Ronaldo would join Morata in the penalty area in that case since Juventus relied heavily on this type of chances, given the excellence of their players in aerial duels. And as you can see in the example below, on each cross Juventus had numbers inside the box and they tried to get the best out of these situations.