Metropolis have reached the quarter-final of the UEFA Ladies’s Champions League for the primary time for the reason that 2020/21 marketing campaign.
We completed second in Group D of this 12 months’s competitors and now know we are going to face considered one of Olympique Lyonnais, Chelsea or Arsenal in March’s final eight ties. The draw for that stage will probably be made in February.
After an 8-0 mixture victory over Paris FC in qualifying after which 5 wins from six within the group, it has been a really spectacular begin to the European marketing campaign for ‘s workforce.
Arsenal and Chelsea’s development alongside ours means that is the primary time three sides from the identical league have gotten this far into the competitors.
Now we all know we’ll face considered one of our fellow Barclays Ladies’s Tremendous League groups or file eight-time champions Lyon later this time period.
Right here we’ll check out the stats that outlined our group stage…
Wins
Metropolis loved a 100% file within the competitors till the ultimate matchday – successful our 5 video games within the group till that time.
Our 5 wins in complete means solely Chelsea and Lyon have tasted success greater than us within the competitors correct to this point this season.
With 15 factors in complete, solely Chelsea and Lyon can declare a greater haul from their group phases whereas we collected the identical as Arsenal and Barcelona, who pipped us to prime spot in our group after their victory on Wednesday night.
Maybe essentially the most memorable of our wins got here on the opening week, once we beat Barcelona 2-0 on the Joie Stadium.
That was backed up with a 3-2 success at Austrian membership St Polten after which a 2-0 residence defeat of Swedish aspect Hammarby.
The reverse towards Hammarby was a 2-1 victory earlier than a 2-0 win towards St Polten.
Attacking
Metropolis’s 11 objectives throughout our six group video games meant a median of slightly below two strikes per match.
That left us ninth by way of objectives scored – making us the least prolific of all the edges which have reached the knockouts.
As you’d anticipate, Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw was our prime scorer with three strikes throughout our six matches. That is three off present prime scorer Pernille Tougher of Bayern Munich.
was amongst a bunch of gamers to attain twice, however she was additionally our main help supplier with three – two off Barcelona’s Patri Guijarro.
We have been very environment friendly with our probability conversion, needing simply 25 pictures on the right track to attain our objectives.
Defending
It is defensively the place we excelled all through a lot of the group stage, with our six objectives conceded solely bettered by Barcelona, Lyon and Wolfsburg – with the latter two in the identical group.
We saved three clear sheets, which solely Lyon and Barcelona might do higher than.
Though and shared the duties with three matches every, Yamashita claimed all three clear sheets.
Nonetheless, Yamashita was required to make simply seven saves as Metropolis dominated the video games wherein she featured.
Keating made 19 saves in complete and got here away with +2.2 when it got here to post-shot xG – the second greatest in the entire event.
Put in easy phrases, that means our younger England goalkeeper saved 2.2 objectives than would fairly be anticipated of a goalkeeper at this stage.
Possession
We have loved 59% possession in our six video games to this point, finishing 2,916 passes in complete.
Our main move makers have been and from their centre-back roles, discovering their goal with 399 and 361 passes respectively.
Kennedy can also be intent on getting the ball ahead, serving to us get a complete of virtually 3,000 metres up the pitch with progressive passes.
That is the fifth greatest within the event, with Lyon’s Wendie Renard main the best way.
‘s progressive passing is essential to our system too and her 49 passes into the ultimate third are the fifth most throughout Europe, serving to us get into harmful positions on the sting of opponents’ containers.
As with all Metropolis sides, possession is integral to our model of play and making environment friendly use of it is going to be essential irrespective of who we face within the final eight.