Shakhtar Donestsk 1
xG 0.38
(Mudryk 29)
Celtic 1
xG 1.48
(OG Bondarenko 10)
Shakhtar Donestk didn't have a shot at goal until the 29th minute and they scored with that chance. They only had 5 shots at goal the whole game and only 2 shots in the box. That's 10 shots in their first 2 games and 5 shots in the box in their first 2 games and they've got 4 points. They've definitely got a good knack with counter attacking football but they were there for the taking in this match.
That's only 1.33 xG over the 2 games for Shakhtar but 3.87 Post Shot xG. Counter attacking chance creation being advantageous to them.
Celtic only scoring once in this game from 1.48 xG will be seen as an opportunity missed to put a gap between them and Shakhtar in this group.
Although the xG trendline was always in Celtic's favour the accurate pass trendlines weren't and while Shakhtar's goal in the 29th minute seemed to be against the run of play it did come at the end of a period where Shakhtar had more accurate passes than Celtic.
Shakhtar had 55% possession during the 15 to 30 minute time period.
For goal contributions it was;
Jota on 0.51. (0.32 xG and 0.19 xA)
O'Riley on 0.44. (0.20 xG and 0.24 xA)
Giakoumakis on 0.33. (0.23 xG and 0.10 xA)
Maeda on 0.30. (0.27 xG and 0.03 xA)
Kyogo on 0.29 xG.
Juranovic on 0.25 xA
Taylor on 0.22 xA.
Jenz on 0.16. (0.09 xG and 0.07 xA)
Carter-Vickers on 0.10. (0.07 xG and 0.03 xA)
Haksabanovic on 0.08 xA.
McGregor on 0.05 xA.
Hatate on 0.04 xA.
Turnbull on 0.03. (0.02 xG and 0.01 xA)
Abada on 0.01 xA.
Mooy on 0.01 xA.
Jota also had an incredible 8 successful dribbles out of 9 attempted which is the most any player has had in a single game in the group stages so far. Celtic's 12 successful dribbles in this game was the most of any team in the four matches in Group F so far. The average successful dribbles per team in the four games was 7.9 and Jota had more himself in this one game.
Jota has now 9 successful dribbles over the 2 games which is joint 2nd best with Ousmane Dembele (Barcelona) with both just behind Vinicius Junior's (Real Madrid) 10. However Jota's has been 9 from 13 attempted and a 69% success rate and the other two's were 45% and 47%.
Haksabanovic was the most fouled player with 3 fouls gained.
From a team perspective Celtic's 14 interceptions was impressive and the average per team in the four games is 8.8.
29% of Celtic's passes came from the midfield and that's the lowest of the season so far. Matt O'Riley and David Turnbull contributed 6% of the team's passes and this was a drop from 10% against Real Madrid. Getting O'Riley on the ball more could have resulted in better opportunities.
In regards to pressures Celtic had 133 in this game and this was up from the 121 pressures versus Real Madrid.
The success rate was also up with Celtic having 23.3% success rate in this game as opposed to 16.5% in the Real Madrid game.
Similar to the Madrid game 41% of Celtic pressures came in Celtic's attacking third of the pitch. Celtic's 54 attacking third pressures is the most of any team in Group F over the 4 games.
Kyogo had the most pressures at 20 (with 3 being successful) and similar to the Madrid game Callum McGregor had the most successful pressures at 5 which was a 41.7% success rate.
Comparing Haksabanovic to Maeda as they had a half each Haksabanovic had 6 pressures and Maeda had 15.
Celtic lined up with 2 changes to the team with Kyogo coming in for Giakoumakis and Jaksabanovic coming in for his first start replacing Abada.
Maeda, Mooy, Turnbull, Giakoumakis and Abada came on as subs for Haksabanovic, O'Riley, Hatate, Kyogo and Jota.
I mentioned in the Real Madrid review that the system was more like a 4-2-3-1 (than 4-3-3) and this game looked that was even more so and at times it looked like a 4-4-2 with Kyogo and O'Riley as a front pairing. Which the average players positions map above indicates.
Instead of McGregor being central (as in the 4-3-3) he is just that little bit to the right (with Hatate to the left) in a 4-2-3-1 line up (or even 4-4-2).
McGregor's heat map opposite.
McGregor had the best passing accuracy of the starting midfielders in both teams at 93%.
Celtic Trends 🍀📈⚽️
Tony@CelticTrends.com