Player Ratings: Athletic Bilbao 2 - 0 Real Madrid Femenino

Real Madrid Femenino’s dreadful start to the league season has dragged on with a 2-0 loss to Athletic Bilbao away from home. Unlike vs. Real Sociedad, the opposition were clearly the best side on the day and the scoreline was fair.

For a recap of the action go here. Otherwise, continue reading for an assessment of the individual performances.

Starting XI

GK: Misa — 5/10: Misa made some key 1v1 saves but was inaccurate with the ball at her feet, culminating with a horrible pass to Rocío Gálvez to set up Athletic’s second goal.

RB: Kenti Robles — 5/10: Kenti had little offensive influence while suffering quite a bit defensively. She was caught out upfield a number of times, which might not all be down to her because such a thing is dependent on system-wide execution, although she was weak preventing crosses and protecting the back post.

RCB: Ivana Andés — 5.5/10: Ivana didn’t make any huge mistakes, but she struggled to cover depth as easily as she normally does and wasn’t at her best stopping crosses into the box.

LCB: Babett Peter — 4.5/10: Couple errors passing out from the back and had her troubles defensively.

LB: Marta Corredera — 5/10: Had a decent game on the ball. Didn’t protect the back post well.

RCM: Maite Oroz — 5/10: Despite Maite having some moments, she was overwhelmed trying to shield the back line and gradually saw her passing quality decrease across 90 minutes. She walked off at full time in tears, summing up every Madridista’s feelings.

LCM: Claudia Zornoza — 4/10: We need more from a veteran like Zornoza. Her passing can’t be this inaccurate and she looks very vulnerable against the ball in deeper situations. The entire line was chaotic thanks to having to recover from a defensive set-piece, but she should’ve been sharper to Ainize Barea’s run for the opener.

RW/LW: Caroline Møller Hansen — 5/10: Her most involved game; had a shot, some carries inside, and a couple decent passes. Also gave the ball away too much and still looked largely disconnected from the flow of play. Swapping wings with Athenea del Castillo around 35 minutes didn’t improve things.

LW/RW: Athenea del Castillo — 4.5/10: Athenea is having a tough time at the moment. None of her take-ons are coming off and her sloppiness killed a number of promising attacks. She had a chance in space from an angle late on and completely botched it. Athenea is admirably trying to take responsibility for the offense — she’s just too young and inexperienced to be shouldering this kind of load at this profile of club right now.

CAM: Lorena Navarro — 6.5/10: Lorena was Madrid’s one progressive option on the night. She offered herself smartly and even managed to get a glancing header off of a deep free-kick at the death, but Athletic were prepared and stymied her with their physicality. Lorena would be ranked a bit higher had her through balls not gotten so wayward in the second half.

ST: Nahikari García — 4.5/10: Had a decent long distance shot and pressed respectably and that’s about it. She had a number of bad giveaways, one of which led to a 1v1 for Athletic in the 19th minute.

Substitutes

LW: Olga Carmona — 5.5/10 (replaced Møller; 58’): Offered more threat than Møller and put some of the team’s more dangerous crosses into the box. Had problems covering space in behind.

RB/LCB: Lucía Rodríguez — 6/10 (replaced Kenti; 77’): Lucía quickly became a left center-back in a 3-5-2 when the next set of subs occurred. She handled it well, bombing forward selectively to try to supplement the offense.

DM: Claudia Florentino — 5/10 (replaced Peter; 80’): Claudia’s cameo in midfield was chaotic. She has experience there but her positioning was all over the place as she tried to figure out how to make an impact in a difficult tactical context.

CB: Rocío Gálvez — 5.5/10 (replaced Corredera; 80’): Was alright. Couldn’t do much to control Misa’s terrible pass in order to prevent an Athletic goal.