Milan Women faced Zürich Women in the round one’s semi-final of the UEFA Women’s Champions League. This first stage of the tournament ended with a 1-2 Milan win following two Valentina Giacinti goals and despite a Naomi Mégroz goal at the 68th minute. This win gave Milan the chance to qualify for the second round of the tournament if they beat Hoffenheim Women in the first-round final which was played on August 20. Then, the winner will be finding teams like Lyon, Juventus, Manchester City, Wolfsburg and Rosengård in round two and the teams will have to surpass this round in order to access the group stage of the tournament. Milan however lost to Hoffenheim who passed to the round two while the Rossonere were out of the tournament a bit too early.
In this tactical analysis article, an extensive review of Milan’s performance will be presented while tackling the weaknesses and the positive aspects of the team’s tactics and especially what needs to be improved ahead of the upcoming games while also analysing Zürich’s performance.
Line-ups
Zürich played according to the 4-4-2 formation relying on Livia Peng as a goalkeeper, Naomi Mégroz, Rahel Kiwic, Julia Stierli and Riana Fischer in defence, Rahel Moser and Laura Vetterlein as central midfielders, Kim Dubs and Seraina Piubel as wingers supporting the two strikers, Fabienne Humm and Meriame Terchoun.
For the Rossonere, Maurizio Ganz opted for the 3-4-3 formation using Laura Giuliani as a goalkeeper, Laura Fusetti, Laura Agard and Guðný Árnadóttir in defence, Sara Thrige and Valentina Bergamaschi on the wings, Greta Adami and Refiloe Jane as central midfielders with previous Bayern Munich and PSG player Verónica Boquete as an advanced playmaker who leans towards the left, and Lindsey Thomas on the right-wing supporting the captain Valentina Giacinti.
Zürich’s defensive and attacking tactics
Zürich played a good game overall and were striving for a win, they didn’t play defensive football and didn’t fully retreat and wait for counters, the Swiss tried to build from the back and advance whenever they had the opportunity to do so, but due to Milan’s ability to keep possession and attack so often, Zürich were obliged to defend more than they wanted. Nevertheless, they were able to create some dangerous chances and threaten Giuliani’s goal before scoring a goal that complicated things for Milan. At the start of the match, Milan were the team that had more possession while Zürich weren’t able to advance with efficiency as they relied mainly on long passes towards the wingers and to Humm and Terchoun. What made this an unsuccessful plan was the strength of Milan’s defenders in aerial duels, which prevented Zürich from collecting the ball inside the final third.
