Recap & Highlights: Athenea Scores Brace vs. Morocco

Spain 3-0 Morocco

Jorge Vilda rotated heavily in Spain’s 3-0 friendly win over Morocco.

Grid View

• Spain’s XI Google
• Morocco’s XI Google

Madridistas Misa Rodríguez, Ivana Andrés, and Athenea del Castillo started in a 4-3-3 formation and played the full ninety minutes.

Spain’s opening half hour or so was quite rough. This was unsurprising, as the tried-and-tested synergies that are normally transplanted from Barcelona were replaced with an almost entirely new lineup.

La Furia Roja slowly began to put things together and eventually scored in the 28th minute thanks to a fantastic Maitane pass and an Athenea finish.

A triple sub in the 59th saw Aitana Bonmatí, Amaiur Sarriegi, and Leila Ouahabi replace Irene Guerrero, Alba Redondo, and Ainhoa Moraza, respectively.

Amaiur promptly scored sixty seconds later.

These introductions elevated Spain’s performance significantly, although Aitana was the primary reason for this.

Athenea bagged her brace in the 68th minute to round out a POTM performance, in which her dribbling was a nightmare for Morocco’s defenders.

Athenea shifted to right back after another set of changes that put Ona in a central position. However, it didn’t matter much and Athenea pushed forward as if she was a right winger.

Things were less smooth for Ivana, who had to play at left center-back after David Aznar tried her there vs. Sevilla. She looked similarly uncomfortable, mostly cutting back inside and playing to the far side, limiting the breadth of Spain’s circulation.

Misa was barely tested and made a good intervention late in the second half.

Italy 1-4 Spain (U-23)

Olga Carmona and Lucía Rodríguez started in a 4-1 victory over Italy at the U-23 level. Olga left the field of play in the 68th minute for Ascensión Martínez and Lucía came off in the 88th minute for Paula Tomás. Lorena Navarro also made a cameo in the 68th minute, swapping in for Inma Gabarro.