Celta de Vigo is positioned as the fourth team with the best goals against ratio among the five main European leagues, surpassed only by Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal and Lazio. In the last ten games the celestial defense has conceded only seven goals, which translates into an average of 0.70 goals per game. This performance places Claudio Giráldez's team among the most solid defenses of the season, although the profitability of that effort is reflected in just 12 points, an average of 1.2 points per game.
The Galician coach has highlighted the difficulty of beating a team with such defensive solidity. "To beat us, the opponent has to do many things well. It is very difficult to get ahold of us," said Giráldez after celebrating his team's fifth clean sheet last Sunday. He added that defense is a “super positive” aspect that allows the team to overcome games in which it lacks strength or control, and that “it can be surviving games to be able to win them.” The coach also recalled that, in the final stretch of the previous championship, he had insisted on the importance of “being solid, focusing much more on the central corridor and being more compact.”
In historical terms, Celta has recorded the second best performance in terms of goals conceded in its history, only surpassed by the 1992-93 season under the direction of Txetxu Rojo, when the team conceded six goals in the first ten games. In the current campaign, the figure of seven goals in ten games is more than double the average of the last decade, which was 16 goals conceded in the same number of games.
Compared to the other big teams, Lazio of Serie A has conceded five goals in eight games and has accumulated 22 points, with an average of 2.75 points per game. Arsenal, under Arteta, have registered an average of 2.63 points per game in the same eight games, with the same number of goals against as Lazio but one point less. Borussia Dortmund leads the list with four goals conceded in seven games and 17 points, which gives them an average of 2.43 points per game, double that of Celta.
In terms of defensive efficiency, Lazio is also in first place with 4.40 points for each goal conceded, followed by Arsenal with 4.20. Among the LaLiga teams, Atlético and Real Madrid obtain 1.71 points per goal conceded, while Diego Simeone and José Mourinho's teams place their averages at 3.13 and 2.40 respectively, after conceding 8 and 10 goals and adding 25 and 24 points in the first ten days.
With the season still underway, Celta will continue to seek to consolidate its defense as one of the pillars of its strategy, while the rest of the European teams try to match or exceed this level of defensive performance. The upcoming games will be crucial to determine if Giráldez's group can maintain its position among the best defenders on the continent and translate it into greater profitability in points.