The two things that Athletic Club executed well in this 3-1 victory was exploiting the space vacated by players who had drifted out of position and individual offensive movements that helped put their players in advantageous positions. These themes reminded me of the 2019 Women's Champions League Final between Lyon and Barcelona, and how Lyon used the same principals to score 2 of their 4 goals in the first 30 minutes.
There were several moments where Eibar's left back was caught out of position and Athletic exploited the space she left behind. This can be seen in the following photos.
Both of these plays resulted in crosses in the box for Athletic. The photo below shows a similar instance in the 2019 Women's Champions League Final. Leila Ouahabi is caught out of position and Lucy Bronze plays a ball into the space where she was supposed to be. Shanice Van de Sanden gets on the end of the pass and crosses into Ada Hegerberg who scores.
Individual offensive movement was another thing Athletic did well in this game. In this case these movements are defined as movements a player does without the ball to get an advantage over a defender. The first example below is of Ane Azkona drifting to her defender's blind side. The defender forgets about Azkona and she receives the ball and has a shot on goal.
For Lyon's third goal, Ada Hegerberg engages Barcelona center back Mapi León and uses the momentum to push off to get the ball and score.
In the 35th minute Paula Arana combines the offensive movement with a run into space vacated by an out of position defender. Arana begins by standing in front of her defender which engages the defender's attention by her mere presence and by the fact that Arana could receive the ball into feet. When the play moves towards her, Arana reads the situation very well, spins, and makes a run into the space behind the backline. The play results in a cross and shot on goal.
This last segment is not related to the points above, but something I noticed in the game. Overloads are often talked about in an offensive context. However, defensive overloads happen frequently and can be key to a team's success. It's important to be aware when creating a defensive overload. The photo below shows Athletic creating a defensive overload of a 2v1 against the Eibar forward. It makes sense because Athletic are positioned well and have numbers behind the ball. This forces the forward to play backwards.
The next photo is an example a defensive overload that does not work. Eibar are not in good positions defensively, and the second Eibar player pressuring the ball forgets about her runner. The two players get split and it results in a shot on goal.
This may seem like common sense, but it's often the avoidable mistakes that lead to goals.
Comments