Neymar Vs. Hazard in the Quarter Finals
Belgium’s victory over tournament-favorites Brazil was the biggest surprise of the quarter finals. Much of the play for both teams flowed through their star wingers — Edan Hazard and Neymar. Using data, we are going to look at how their performances compared, as well as why Brazil may have fallen short.
Pretty much level in terms of activity. Interestingly, this match marked Hazard’s lowest activity level of the matches that he has completed. He was doing more of his damage with passing from the midfield instead of the extended runs he was able to show against lesser competition.
Neymar played further forward than Hazard throughout the match and extremely far up the field when Brazil was pressing for an equalizing goal later in the 2nd half.
This table tells a real story about this match. In my opinion, a team as skilled as Brazil shouldn’t need to depend so much on Neymar to create. Neymar’s giveaways indicate that he was trying to do too much with the ball and the amount of passes that he received show that his team was expecting him to perform a miracle for them. Similar to Argentina’s struggles, it seems that the manager’s tactics were too reliant on one superstar player while underutilizing the skill of the other players on the pitch.
Belgium looks strong after this win. We will soon see if they’re strong enough to make it to the finals. ⚽️
T-Goal allows players of all skill levels to track their in-game performance data. Learn more about T-Goal here.
Our Previous Articles:
Sprint Data in the Round Of 16
World Cup Group Stage- Players Who Covered the Most Distance
All data via fifa.com
