Player Ratings: Real Madrid Femenino 0 - 2 PSG; UEFA Women’s Champions League

Real Madrid Femenino lost 2-0 to PSG in matchday 4 of the UEFA Women’s Champions League. The French outfit ran out deserved winners, although this was a much more competitive encounter than the 4-0 loss from last time out.

Go here for the match recap. Continue reading for player ratings. All stats from sofascore.

Starting XI

GK: Misa — 7/10: Misa definitely contributed a lot of positive things tonight. She made 4 saves and assertively punched away a number of crosses. Additionally, she executed an excellent sweeper-keeper action that prevented a 1v1. However, she possibly made a misjudgment on PSG’s first goal and maybe could’ve gotten a stronger foot to the Sakina Karchaoui shot that deflected into the net. These were difficult situations for Misa though — the primary responsibility lies with the defense.

RB: Kenti Robles — 6/10: Kenti did a solid job containing Ramona Bachmann and Kadidiatou Diani (the two swapped flanks) in the first half and made a few promising overlapping runs. On the flip side, her passing was sloppy (58%) and she wasn’t able to fashion accurate combinations with Nahikari. Kenti was forced to come off injured in the 50th minute.

RCB: Rocío Gálvez — 6/10: Rocío was competent against the ball but could’ve been cleaner with it. Rocío also could’ve been quicker to cover Katoto on PSG’s decisive set-piece. However, the defender was not the primary culprit.

LCB/RCB: Ivana Andrés — 6.5/10: Ivana was once again the strongest defensive force vs. the French champions. It was surprising to see her start out on the left given that Aznar had returned to a back four, but her distribution didn’t suffer like it has in past games on that flank. She completed 90% of her passes on 61 attempts.

LB: Olga Carmona — 7/10: Olga was Madrid’s brightest spark going forward. She had some sweet touches and her overlapping runs caused issues for Ashley Lawrence.

Madrid’s best chance of the game came from an Olga cross that found Esther at the back post. Carmona was also super active defensively. She recorded 8 tackles and 4 interceptions but was also caught out a fair few times and was dribbled past on 6 occasions. In the context of the opposition — Diani and Lawrence are two of the most dominant wing threats in the world — Olga just about held her own.

RCM: Maite Oroz — 8.5/10: Maite was magnificent on the ball. Her passing accuracy was 96% and she fashioned 2 key passes while completing 4/5 long balls.

Mixed into all of that were some clever reverse passes, a cheeky nutmeg, and an extremely cool head vs. the press. This was a statement game from one of the best young central midfielders in the world.

The only real blemish on her performance was her defending on PSG’s second goal, as Maite let Karchaoui fly by her a little too easily.

LCM: Claudia Zornoza — 7.5/10: Zornoza wasn’t at Maite’s level but was still solid. Her through balls to release Olga into space were a key to Madrid’s promising offensive moments and Claudia also showed composure under pressure.

LAM: Teresa Abelleira — 6/10: Teresa tried to interpret her left-wing role to the best of her ability, roaming inside to sometimes create 2-4-1-3 looks in possession. She did alright but ultimately failed to receive the ball in dangerous areas between the lines.

RW-RF/RS: Nahikari García — 5/10: Nahikari had to sacrifice in this pseudo-right-wing/right forward role for most of the game and failed to make a real impact. She eventually moved into a two up top with Esther but struggled to receive efficiently with her back to goal.

RS: Caroline Møller Hansen — 4.5/10: There was significant confusion over how Nahikari, Esther, and Møller were going to occupy spaces in a balanced and effective manner and Møller was the one who was most hurt by this. She picked up only 16 touches in an hour of action and had no discernible effect on the game.

LS: Esther González — 6.5/10: Esther got off the most shots and made a really good run into the box to potentially level proceedings in the second half.

Aside from that, she struggled to figure out how to move in relation to Møller and Nahikari but probably had the better link-up touches out of the three attackers. Esther’s main mistake came on defense, where she failed to stay with Marie-Antoinette Katoto on a free-kick, allowing for PSG’s opener.

Substitutes

LCB: Babett Peter (replaced Rocío; 46’) — 6/10: Babs came on for Rocío — shifting Ivana to right center-back — and did a decent job.

RB: Lucía Rodríguez (replaced Kenti; 50’) — 5.5/10: Lucía was barely involved offensively and spent most of her time trying to contain a renewed Karchaoui. Lucía ultimately came up short, getting caught flat footed as PSG’s left back blazed past Maite and jinked back to the outside to assault Misa’s goal.

RW: Athenea del Castillo (replaced Møller; 60’) — 5/10: Athenea’s offensive and defensive work-rate can never be doubted, and she tried her utmost to make things happen with her dribbling and tackling, but few of her actions came off at the end of the day.

LAM: Marta Corredera (replaced Teresa; 73’) — N/A: Wasn’t much to speak of besides one long-range shot.

RCM: Aurélie Kaci (replaced Maite; 73’) — N/A: Had 5 touches.