How to defend crosses FIFA

This tutorial shows how to defend crosses in every FIFA. Where to position players, how to jockey and how to win the header. FIFA is hard to defend crosses as the game favours the attacker. Especially with low crosses and early crosses.

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First step of defending a cross is to stop it happening. Player 3 in the diagrams below is running towards the ball as player 4 runs down the wing. He will collect the ball and then try to put the ball ahead of player 4.

Therefore your first step is to move a defender into the space down the wing, to block access.
In the example we are controlling player 1 so to manually change to the defender number 2 we need to flick the right stick in that direction. Once we have control of player 2 we run him towards the corner flag filling that space.

Then your opponent won’t try the through ball to the winger but might pass it to him. So you will end up with a player in front of him. Usually they will then cut inside so you change to the player inside by again flicking right stick towards him. If he still tries to run down the wing hold 2nd man press so your defender nearest corner flag jockeys him. If he cuts inside you now have control of the player to break down the play or next pass.

Blocking the cross technique

You can actually try to block the cross with an instant hard slide tackle. A feature in FIFA which is rarely used. As mentioned in our main defending tutorial page press R1 or RB with slide tackle and you perform an immediate lunge. Practice in friendlies doing lunges as the attacker looks like they are about to cross. If your opponent starts to fake the cross you will have to use the other techniques.

FIFA Defending crosses and corners video

This video will help you in every version of FIFA and it applies to real football too. The video shows the techniques on this page including stopping the cross and winning the headers.

Dealing with the cross in FIFA

STEP 1. Make sure controlling a player away from the area. Best one is closest to the crosser such as our player marked 2 below. If you think they are going to fake and cut inside hold 2nd man press and switch to the next closest player. Labelled 4 in the image. Only do this if your defender inside does not have a striker to mark. So in the example below he has a man to mark and you should not switch to him unless lots of cover.

STEP 2. When ball being crossed don’t press anything until the ball is dipping towards the two players. Then press the left stick the same direction the ball is going in away from the crosser and press shoot (don’t just tap it). Your defender will try to flick the ball behind him jumping into the striker. If more space he will just clear it out of the box. The video above shows this technique in detail and how well it works.