The CIES Football Observatory is pleased to inform you that a new edition of the Big-5 Weekly Post is available to download for free on our website. The latest issue considers the subject of big-5 league experience (average number of matches in the big-5 during career for players fielded).

Highest / lowest big-5 league experience, per league (last week-end)

English Premier League 143 / Spanish Liga 115

Highest / lowest big-5 league experience, per club (last week-end)

Milan AC (ITA) 285 / Norwich City (ENG) 24

Best players, general index (last week-end)

ENG: Y. Touré (Man. City) / ESP: A. Cejudo (Osasuna) / FRA: Nenê (Paris St. Germain) / ITA: C. Seedorf (Milan AC)

Chelsea FC, who lost in the 2008 final to Manchester United on penalties, and Bayern Munich, who were defeated by Inter Milan in 2010, will return to the biggest stage in club football for what will be a fascinating encounter. Both teams include numerous players who have participated in previous finals and both teams have battled against the odds to reach this stage of the tournament.

The CIES Football Observatory has analysed the two teams and can now present an exclusive identikit using three demographic and three technical indicators which are mainly linked to results. Each indicator is presented comparatively with the value of 100 for the team with the highest score. Our calculations are made on the basis of all matches played this year in the Champions League. Pitch performance indicators have been developed using data supplied by our partners Opta.

Chelsea FC shows greater Champions League experience and squad stability. However, this contrasts with Bayern Munich’s greater pitch performance levels in all areas of the game (attacking, distribution and defending) and recent national A-team activity for its squad members.

Our data indicate that Bayern Munich should win the final. The German side has also the advantage to playing at their home stadium. Interestingly, however, in 1984 AS Roma had also the opportunity to become champions at home but was defeated by Liverpool FC. It should be noted, though, that the last time the Champions League final was played in Munich a German club did win the competition with Borussia Dortmund the winners in 1997.

The today Big-5 Weekly Post is also available. Sign up to receive our e-news and periodic alerts from the home page (bottom left) of our website.

The latest issue of the Big-5 Weekly Post presents data on the best performing footballers for April in each of the five major European championships. All the results are available to download for free from the CIES Football Observatory website.

Rankings are established according to five exclusive key performance indicators identified by the CIES Football Observatory on the basis of raw data provided by our partner company Opta. The indicators cover the following areas of play: open play shot, chance creation, take on, distribution and recovery.

Significantly, all of the indicators aggregated at team level are positively correlated to club results for each league and season. Only footballers who have played at least 50% of championship minutes in April are included in the rankings.

Best players, general index (April)

Big-5: L. Messi (Barcelona) / ENG: C. Tévez (Man. City) / ESP: L. Messi (Barcelona) / FRA: A. Traoré (Auxerre) / GER: I. Periši? (B. Dortmund) / ITA: A. Pirlo (Juventus)

The address eurofootplayers.org is now redirected to this domain. This change reflects the recent and ongoing diversification of activities beyond football within the context of the broader CIES Observatory project.

The official launching of the latter will take place on the 2nd of May at the headquarters of the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) in Neuchâtel. On this occasion, the first ever International Basketball Migration Report will be presented.

Football lovers can rest assured as the Football section of the CIES Observatory will keep on growing and the contents of the website football-observatory.com will also be continuously developed in the weeks, months and years to come!

It should be noted, however, that only a small gap in pitch performance has been recorded by the Observatory for both fixtures and that the results in the two semi-finals are far from certain. As the exclusive Football Observatory performance indicators reveal, the general team productivity of FC Barcelona is only 11.1% greater than that of Chelsea FC, with the latter team showing significantly greater defensive strengths.

The other semi-final between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich is even more delicately balanced with the productivity of the Spanish side only 1.1% greater than that of the high flying German team. As Dr Raffaele Poli, Head of the CIES Football Observatory, notes, “This particular fixture is more likely to be decided by unpredictable events such as the injury to a key player, on pitch errors or various refereeing decisions.”

For more detailed statistics and analysis, please visit the CIES Football Observatory website or email us at eurofootplayers@cies.ch

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According to our general performance measurement index from the Champions League group stage, the only surprising outcome of the round of 16 was the elimination of French side Olympique Lyonnais by APOEL Nicosia.

The application of the same methodology for the forthcoming quarter finals suggests that the most evenly balanced fixture is that between FC Bayern München and Olympique de Marseille. Indeed, the general team productivity of the former club is only 13.7% greater than that of the latter one. The performance gap is 20.9% between Chelsea FC and SL Benfica, 21.6% between FC Barcelona and Milan AC, and up to 43.6% between Real Madrid and APOEL Nicosia.

More detailed statistics and analysis can be found on the CIES Football Observatory website at www.eurofootplayers.org