Player Ratings: Real Madrid Femenino 3 - 0 WFC Kharkiv; UWCL

Real Madrid Femenino defeated WFC Kharkiv 3-0 in a fairly comfortable affair to close out the Champions League group stages.

Here are the immediate reaction and post-match quotes. Continue reading for the player ratings.

Starting XI

GK: Misa — 6.5/10: Misa didn’t have a lot to do but was sharp coming off her line, as always.

RB: Kenti Robles — 8.5/10: Kenti was a dominant force on the right flank, charging forward on the overlap and underlap, initiating dynamic combinations, putting in quality deliveries, and tracking back to cut out attacks. She ended her night with an assist, 5 tackles, 2/3 crosses, and an 86% passing accuracy.

RCB: Babett Peter — 7/10: Babs did a solid job at right center-back when she normally plays on the opposite side. Her passing and defending were mostly clean and she scored the opener.

LCB: Rocío Gálvez — 6.5/10: A similar performance from Rocío; except only over 45 minutes and without the goal, although she came close in regard to the latter.

LB: Marta Corredera — 6.5/10: This was one of Corredera’s best progressive passing performances in a long time. However, she still retained some of her characteristic sloppiness as a distributor, completing an underwhelming 75% of her passes. She also got burned by Kharkiv’s POTM, Olha Ovdiychuk, often. On the flip side, Corredera made a critical challenge on her at the death.

RCM: Maite Oroz — 8/10: Maite was class, succeeding on 90% of her passes and scoring a golazo to make it 2-0.

Some weird giveaways and a slow start to proceedings keep her rating lower than some might want.

LCM: Teresa Abelleira — 8/10: Tere was also quite impressive once she cleaned up some early errors. Her switch passing was an important facet of Madrid’s possession play, as were her defensive contributions and delivery on set-pieces.

RW: Marta Cardona — 5.5/10: Cardona is still working her way back into rhythm. The first 30 minutes of her performance were extremely sloppy, but she caused left back Olga Basanska considerable problems at the end of the day. Little by little, Madrid’s best player is finding herself.

LW: Caroline Møller Hansen — 7.5/10: Møller had the home fans chanting her name at two different points in the match, such was her silky-smooth control of the ball. There has been a lot of discussion about what her best position is, which Alberto Toril talked about post-match, and you could see both sides of the argument today.

At times, her positioning near the touchline felt like a waste of her back-to-goal play and potential to make runs into the box. In other moments, it felt like she was at her best nutmegging defenders and carrying the ball into danger zones. She’s an intriguing player whose versatility gives Toril a couple of options depending on the context.

CAM: Kosovare Asllani — 5/10: A quiet game for the superstar after three marquee performances. Kharkiv were compact between the lines and limited her to only 12 touches in the first half, following which Asllani was subbed off due to a knock.

ST/RS: Nahikari García — 6.5/10: Madrid’s set-piece dominance covered up some issues creating from open play. Those problems made it hard for Nahikari to imprint herself on the match. Nevertheless, her movement as the most advanced player was strong and she showed promise with some of her link-up and defensive work.

Substitutes

LS: Esther González — 7.5/10 (replaced Asllani; 46’): Esther operated as a deep-lying forward, dropping off into the left halfspace frequently to help progress play. Her effect on progression was a significant positive and she capped off her night with a well-taken goal, courtesy of Kenti’s gorgeous cross.

LCB: Claudia Florentino — 6.5/10 (replaced Rocío; 46’): Claudia did her bit at the back. Maybe could’ve been sharper on certain occasions but made her fair share of good interventions, too.

RW: Lorena Navarro — 7/10 (Cardona; 57’): Lorena was a noticeable influence in her ~36 minutes of action. After coming on, she initially made an excellent run in behind before dropping off and linking play with a level of incisiveness and intelligence that represent her playing style well.

RCM: Aurélie Kaci — 6/10 (Maite; 71’): Did what she needed to do and kept things simple.

LW: Athenea del Castillo — 6.5/10 (Møller; 71’): ~20 minutes is more than enough time for Athenea to embarrass defenders multiple times and make a general nuisance of herself.