Crosses into the box: comparison of the top five European football leagues

Abstract

The study aim was to examine crosses into the box in the Top Five European Football Leagues (TFEFL). All crosses in the 2020-2021 (N=44519) season were included in the sample as follows: Spanish LaLiga (SLL) (N=8959), English Premier League (EPL) (N=9753), German Bundesliga (GL) (N=7354), Italian Serie A (ISA) (N=9206) and French Laligue1 (FLL) (N=9247). The data was extracted from the Instat data provider. The results showed that crosses were the most frequently used technique-tactic (24.36 crosses/match) compared to other finishing events. In terms of total TFEFL, a moderate correlation was found between crosses into the box and other ball possession variables such as time (r=0.442; p<0.001), percentage (r=0.484; p<0.001) and average time of each possession (r=0.328; p<0.001). Identical correlations were found for game transition variables such as total ball recoveries (r=0.442; p<0.001) and ball recoveries from opponent (r=0.484; p<0.001). A moderate relationship was found between the crosses and the shots on target (r=0.341; p<0.001). Future observation studies should seek to determine the relationship between the crosses and different aspects of the game.