Georgios Pafis, Minas Ispirlidis, Katerina Daskalaki.1*, Vasiliki Malliou.2, Other Author(s)
1Department of PESS, Democritus University of Thrace
2Department of PESS, Kapodistrian University of Athens
*Contact Corresponding Author: 
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the defensive behavior of the top 5 teams in the English, Spanish, and German leagues during the 2023-24 season regarding their response to different types of crosses delivered into the penalty area, aiming to minimize the percentage of goals scored through this type of offensive action. For this reason, the effectiveness of the defense of the aforementioned teams was examined in relation to crosses that ended up inside the penalty area, based on the zone from which the cross was executed. For the statistical analysis of the data, frequency and percentage ratio analyses were performed, as well as an independence test using the Crosstabs function and the non-parametric chi-square (χ²) test, in order to explore the relationships between all categories. The study observed the defensive behaviors of these teams in a total of 1,428 crosses. The data analysis showed that: In the English league, higher percentages of crosses were executed from intermediate spaces, whereas in the Spanish and German leagues, higher percentages were recorded from wide zones. No statistically significant differences (p<0.05) were found between the teams of the English, Spanish, and German leagues regarding the effectiveness of their defense in dealing with crosses from all zones where the cross took place. Higher percentages of defensive failure were observed in the English league, followed by the Spanish league, while the lowest frequencies of defensive line failures were recorded in the German league.
Keywords: cross execution positions, defensive line height, defensive line effectiveness, Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga
