Chelsea Women and Barcelona Women will meet on Sunday for the long-awaited UEFA Women’s Champions League final at Gamla Ullevi in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Both teams reached the final with convincing performances against some of the best European teams including Wolfsburg, Bayern Munich for Chelsea and Manchester City, PSG for Barcelona.
In this tactical analysis article, we will look at both teams’ probable formations and line-ups before moving to an in-depth analysis of Chelsea’s attacking tactics and a look at Barcelona’s weapons to counter their opponent’s attacks relying on their organised defence and dangerous attacking plans.
Probable line-ups
Emma Hayes will most likely start the game with the 4-3-3 formation for this match as she did against Bayern Munich but as we have seen in previous games, this formation can change in the course of the match especially in attack since Kerr, Harder, and Kirby often exchange roles and positions to confuse defences and create spaces for each other. They would start with Ann-Katrin Berger as a goalkeeper, Jessica Carter as a right-back instead of the injured Maren Mjelde, Millie Bright, Magdalena Eriksson and Jonna Andersson or Niamh Charles as a left-back.
The midfield will be formed of Sophie Ingle, Melanie Leupolz and Ji So-yun as central midfielders, with Pernille Harder playing as a false nine and Sam Kerr alternating between moving to the left-wing and joining Harder inside the penalty area, while Fran Kirby would be the right-winger who becomes a second striker at times and plays so close to Harder and Kerr.
Lluís Cortés would also start according to a similar formation, the 4-1-4-1 which often becomes a 4-3-3 formation. This one was Barcelona’s most used formation this season and the team had great results when adopting it. And they would start the game with Sandra Paños as a goalkeeper, Marta Torrejón, Patricipa Guijarro to replace the suspended Andrea Pereira, Mapi León, and Leila Ouahabi in defence, a midfield more likely composed of Kheira Hamraoui due to Patricia Guijarros obliged change of position, Alexia Putellas and Aitana Bonmatí, and a front three including Caroline Graham Hansen as a right winger, Lieke Martens on the left wing and Jennifer Hermoso as a striker, leaving Asisat Oshoala as an impactful sub during the game.
