After not giving the best impression in the group phase of Euro 2024, England took on Slovakia, and nonetheless, it was a tight match that was decided on extra time. England surprised a lot of people by having K. Mainoo in the starting eleven next to Declan Rice in the midfield. Slovakia carried on with the change of David Strelec in the number nine position.
After Ivan Schranz scored the first goal of the game, England had to take bigger risks in their game plan. In England’s passing network the players are further from each other, having to make longer passes to reach the teammate, with a mean of 30-35 meters per pass, and a success rate of 17% in crosses. This type of actions can give more time to the opponent to reach near the ball’s position, which is why Slovakia had more interceptions, recoveries, and more duels won against the Three lions. In the other place, Slovakia is more clustered in the middle than England, and their mean meters per pass is equal to 15-20 meters per pass. This would also explain why it took longer for England to tie the game, because longer passes decrease the accuracy, as opposed to short passes which are more “safe”. A great example of this statistic would be Erebechi Eze, who had a mean of 50 meters per pass.
REPORT PREPARED BY THE STUDENTS OF SPORTS DATA CAMPUS:
Attila Hegedüs
https://www.linkedin.com/in/attila-j%C3%B3zsef-heged%C5%B1s/
Tomás Cabrera
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomas-cabrera-petrone-b2a9681b1/