Copa Libertadores 2022: Flamengo vs Athletico Paranaense

Category: Team Analysis

We take an in-depth look at the Copa Libertadores final between Flamengo and Athletico Paranaense.

Published:27/10/2022

The Copa Libertadores final will be the fourth in a row to be won by a Brazilian team and the third in a row to be played by two Brazilian teams. It is the summary of the economic and footballing power with which Brazil dominates South America, distancing itself more and more from all other countries. A gap that seems to be opening up more and more and that translates into football at the highest level: the Copa Libertadores, which will be played this weekend by Flamengo, two-time champions and one of the biggest clubs in the world, and Athletico Paranaense, the great revelation of the tournament, led by the eternal Luiz Felipe Scolari, the great Fernandinho and the emerging talent Vitor Roque.

They also clash, two styles, two ways of understanding the game, with Flamengo betting on an attacking, elaborate football, inherited from the work carried out by Jorge Jesus and now maintained by Dorival, facing a much more compressed Athletico Paranaense, which competes from inferiority, with a very strong mentality, characteristic of Luiz Felipe Scolari, world champion and double Libertadores champion, and whose differences in performance and style we can see in these two radars. There are vast differences in individual and collective quality between the two.

We are talking about a team used to dominating all their games through the ball and looking for quick recovery in the opposition half. As reflected in the two maps below, Flamengo recover quickly in the opposition half far more than in their own, while their opponents, subdued by the pace Flamengo impose, are only able to recover quickly in their own half, very little in the opposition half.

One of the key players in the final is Gorgian de Arrascaeta, perhaps the best playmaker on the continent: skilful, creative, decisive when approaching the finish or the final pass, intense, he is Flamengo’s engine, Mengao’s most different player and Pedro’s best assistant. No other player of his position in this Copa Libertadores produces more passes to the opponent’s area per 90 minutes, as well as in expected assists, being the second in generating xG through the shot or the last pass. The final could go through his boots.

In addition to Vitor Roque, the great young phenom of the competition, and Scolari’s lesser-known young block, the figure of Fernandinho is of vital importance in Athletico Paranaense’s plans. The team from Curitiba has experienced a very important competitive leap with the former Manchester City player, who reflects what happens when he is on the pitch and what happens when he is not part of the team. In this visualisation we wanted to show how the statistics increase or decrease with or without Fernandinho as a midfielder. In all metrics related to defence or playmaking, Fernandinho has a direct impact on all of them.

Finally, the ability of Flamengo to convert the chances they do have seems crucial, with Pedro at an enormous level, while Athletico Paranaense have been very solid at the back in preventing expected goals and saving those that clearly should have been goals. The match, in principle, plays in favour of the all-conquering Flamengo but Scolari’s side will have their chance.

We are Driblab, a consultancy specialized in the statistical analysis of players and teams; our work is focused on advising and minimizing risk in professional football decision-making in areas related to talent detection and footballer evaluations. Our database has more than 200,000 players from more than 180 competitions, covering information from all over the world. Here you can learn more about how we work and what we offer.

Autor: Alejandro Arroyo
For Team Analysis we also recommend you:

Offside: teams that cause offsides most often

We analyze the teams that cause the most offsides and whether it is related to the way they defend.

Championship: Best U-22 centrebacks in defensive duels

Winning a duel is fundamental in football. We try to find out which U-22 Championship centrebacks are the best in ground and aerial duels.

Sky Sport Italy: the best goalkeeper claiming crosses

Sky Sport measures Milan’s two goalkeepers on their ability to get out to claim crosses, with Mike Maignan the best goalkeeper in Europe in that regard, thanks to our ‘Aerial Accuracy’ metric.

Counterpressing in Bundesliga 22/23

We display the defensive actions measuring pressure after loss across players and teams of the Bundesliga 22/23.

ON/OFF: Betis and Atlético de Madrid without two of its pillars

We look at the impact Nabil Fekir and Reinildo Mandava have on their respective teams, now that they are set to be sidelined for several months with the same injury.

Visualizing Liverpool’s problems

What data best reflects Liverpool’s decline? They are not few and they are very obvious.

GBE: South American U-20 talents now eligible to play in the UK

There are not many U20 talents in South America who can play in the UK. We look at some of the best who can do so by meeting the requirements set by the GBE filter.

Five years of VAR: are more penalties being awarded?

We go to our database to find out what impact VAR has had on penalties awarded since its inception.

How to use driblabPRO as a team analyst

We use numerous visualisations that the Driblab team has developed over time to facilitate the work of an analyst within a club.

driblabPRO Release Notes December ‘22

In recent weeks we have improved the speed of driblabPRO to offer a more dynamic experience to our users.

Driblab

Información corporativa

Somos una empresa con sede en Madrid fundada en 2017 por Salvador Carmona y Cristian Coré Ramiro. Desde nuestros inicios nuestro trabajo se ha centrado en el análisis estadístico de datos para ayudar a los clubes en la planificación deportiva. Somos una consultora big data que ofrece servicios personalizados para cada cliente y defiende un modelo de gestión mixto y una comunicación constante para acompañar el día a día de las instituciones. Nuestro punto fuerte es la más amplia cobertura disponible en número de torneos profesionales y juveniles. Para más detalles, póngase en contacto con nosotros.

Colaboramos con:

           

Hemos aparecido en:


Talk to our speciali