Analysis of goal-scoring in an elite European women’s football teams

Abstract

Football is one of the sports with more audience and women’s football has undergone a notable evolution at all levels. Scoring goals is the most relevant indicator of success in football. The aims of this study were to analyse, looking for patterns and/or differences in how gools are obtained through European elite women's teams. The goals were analysed through: way of obtaining the goal, type of finishing, type of assistance, time interval in which the goal was scored, assistance zone and finishing zone. A frequency analyses was performed through total number of actions of 174 goals from French and English teams in the respective national championships. The highest percentage of goals was obtained through offensive organization, also giving importance to the number of goals through tactical schemes (set balls). The zone where most goal submissions occur was in the penalty area, and the time interval of the games where the most goals were scored was defined between the 31 and 61 minutes. Differently from men’s, elite women’s football teams obtain the highest percentage of goals through the offensive organization, with a substantial number of goals also being scored through tactical schemes.