RB Leipzig 3-1 Celtic in focus: Post-goal creative void and second-half 'battleground change'

Two goals from Andre Silva proved the difference after Jota had levelled Christopher Nkunku's opener. The hosts also had two goals disallowed by VAR.

After making four changes to his starting line-up for the visit of Motherwell to Parkhead, Ange Postecoglou opted to make none for this one.

That meant third successive starts for academy product Stephen Welsh at centre-back and Japan international Daizen Maeda on the wing.

Postecoglou used all five of his available substitutes with a first substantial outing for Danish midfielder Oliver Abildgaard coming after captain Callum McGregor's injury while James McCarthy and James Forrest both made their first Celtic appearances since August.

The defeat leaves Celtic bottom of the group on one point ahead of two home matches against Leipzig and Shakhtar and a visit to face Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Here, The Celtic Way highlights some of the key StatsBomb data from the Leipzig game to give you a match report experience like no other.

xG/trendline

While the trendline reflects the fact Leipzig enjoyed the better chances during the first half, the difference is marginal at best.

Indeed, Celtic actually created more attempts at goal in the opening half, with 10 to Leipzig's seven. It is worth noting the hosts' first disallowed goal - a sumptuous Nkunku dink chalked off for offside - is not included in this data.

However, while the Hoops did generate an abundance of shots during that period, they were rarely of high quality. 

Nkunku had the 'best' two chances in the first half from a statistical standpoint - his second-minute attempt (0.29 xG) and his goal (0.28 xG) beating out Matt O'Riley's tame fourth-minute effort (0.20 xG).

Kyogo enjoyed the best of the rest of Celtic's first-half chances with his trio of headers clocking 0.09, 0.09 and 0.08 in xG. 

The sharp rise in Celtic's trendline before the Leipzig opener is due to the clutch of chances they had between the 24th and 27th minute - the last of which led directly to the breakaway from which Nkunku scored.

In contrast, the second half may have brought their solitary goal (Jota converting a team-high 0.34 xG chance) but it was one of only two shots Celtic mustered compared to Leipzig's 10 (again not including Dominik Szoboszlai's disallowed goal).

Of particular note is the distinct dearth of chances generated after the equaliser; Celtic had one more shot taken almost 30 minutes later while Leipzig went from strength to strength in creating their three best chances of the match.

Silva's second goal to make it 3-1 was statistically the best of the match at 0.56 xG.

StatsBomb's final cumulative xG totals for each side were 2.54-1.12 in Leipzig's favour, suggesting a two-goal margin of victory was around what could be expected given the relative chances created, if a slight overperformance on the hosts' part.

Our data provider also suggests Celtic would have walked away with something from the game just 26 per cent of the time based on the attempts generated.

Shots

Celtic had 12 attempts at goal - five fewer than their last European outing against Shakhtar Donetsk - with eight inside the box. Of those, six came in what could be termed close, central areas. Despite this, just two attempts can be described as mid-to-high-quality xG: Jota's goal and O'Riley's early effort.

The full breakdown of the 12 attempts was as follows: five were on target, four missed and three were blocked. Peter Gulacsi made one save before going off injured with his replacement, Janis Blaswich, making a further three.

Nine of Celtic's 12 efforts were created from open play - including Jota's goal - with the other three coming as a result of corners.

Leipzig managed 17 attempts - not including the two disallowed goals - with five surpassing 0.2 xG.

All five of those were in the Celtic box with the hosts reaching double figures in close, central efforts on Joe Hart's goal.

Of their 17, six were on target with four missing and seven blocked. Their post-shot xG was exactly 3.00 while Hart made three saves.

When it came to individual shots, Kyogo topped the Celtic charts with four followed by Jota with three. No other Celt managed more than one. Silva dwarved all players with a massive nine. 

Possession, passing & positions

The pass network gives a sense of where the game was played and who was most involved. The warmer the colour the more influential the player, while the thicker passing lines the more passes between the players.

Greg Taylor is the only individual Celt to advance beyond a pale orange from the first half play, while the Hart-Welsh-Josip Juranovic combination has particularly thick red links between them denoting they passed it between them more often - although neither of Juranovic's links to right winger Maeda or any of the central midfielders is particularly frequent.

Celtic's general shape appears to have held up in the opening half but this could not be said for after the break, where not only are individual nodes ice-cold but the average positions deeper and more spread out, perhaps reflecting how Leipzig appeared to enjoy quite a bit of space to operate in as the game wore on.

Only Hatate, Jota and Kyogo's nodes are anything other than a cold blue for the second 45. None of the substitutes made an impact in this regard either.

Looking at Leipzig's first half vs second half networks what sticks out is not only that the bulk of the team were more involved and more dangerous after the break but also that on average they were - as logically follows from Celtic's deeper line - operating considerably higher up on average.

Despite Nkunku and Werner having licence to roam the opening half reflects a fair shape - with Silva perhaps surprisingly deep. This also changed in the second 45 with the Portuguese the clear focal point amid his two-goal display.

Leipzig had 59 per cent of the possession while both sides passed at around the same accuracy rate (86 per cent for the hosts, 84 for Celtic).

Despite a post-goal creative void, seven Celts ended the match with at least one key pass compared to nine Leipzig men. Hatate and home left-back Raum shared the game-high total with three apiece.

Pressing and defending

Celtic had more pressures (173 vs 143) but fewer pressure regains (33 vs 37) than Leipzig which marked the second match the Champions League with such an occurrence after the opening-night loss to Real Madrid. 

Individually, Kyogo topped the lot with a match-high 26 pressures. O'Riley followed with one fewer while Maeda reached 20 alongside Leipzig duo Szoboszlai and Nkunku.

Kyogo was top for counter-pressing as well (five). A mantle he shared with Szoboszlai and Xaver Schlager. Hatate, Taylor and - despite being withdrawn after 37 minutes injured - McGregor were next best with four.

In the basic defensive metrics, of note were the contributions of O'Riley (three tackles, two interceptions, not dribbled past), Taylor (a tackle, three interceptions, a clearance and not dribbled past) and Moritz Jenz (two tackles, two interceptions, three clearances and not dribbled past).

Abildgaard, on his Celtic European debut, tallied three tackles, two clearances and won all four of his aerial duels while Juranovic grabbed a match-high four interceptions and Welsh did the same in clearances (eight).

You can read our detailed Celtic player ratings from this match here