Athletic Club and Atletico de Madrid played a highly entertaining game that ended in a 2-1 victory for Athletic Club. Atletico played a great game and did many things well throughout. They will feel disappointed not to at least have gotten a point. However, this post will focus on what contributed to Athletic's success in this match. The names of these clubs are similar so I will refer to Athletic Club as Athletic and Atletico de Madrid as Atleti. The three areas where Athletic excelled was their build up play in the first half, the use of Irene Oguiza and Marta Unzué in a double pivot, and the role of Lucía García.
Athletic started the game brightly and and had good patterns that allowed them to build out of the back. While patterns and movement are usually the foundation for repeated success in this area, it also helps when players have the vision and ability to switch play with a single pass as center back Oihane Valdezate did. The photos below are one continuous pass over two frames.
Athletic had good movement in the midfield that opened up forward passing lanes. As seen below, the midfield player checks towards her teammate who has the ball. Her marker follows her and this allows a forward pass into a player in an advanced position.
Irene Oguiza had a fantastic game where she found space behind Atleti's front 2 in their 4-4-2 defensive shape, was positioned well defensively all game, and made important interceptions and tackles. In the photo below it shows an instance where she got on the ball in that space in front of Atleti's line of 4 and switched play.
Oguiza played in a double pivot with Marta Unzué, and while they played more reserved and defensive roles, they helped Athletic in the build up when they were able to connect to advance play or get out of a tight situation. This worked because they made sure that they were positioned close enough to each other so it made it easy to find one another.
As just mentioned, most of the work that Oguiza and Unzué did in the double pivot was to stay compact and make it hard for Atleti to play through the middle. They used their close positioning to create defensive numerical advantages in the midfield. One would step to the player with the ball and the other would be there to regain possession. This can be seen in the photos below.
The pivot in front of the backline formed a 4-2 defensive formation. This made it difficult for Atleti to play through the middle and allowed the 4-2 to pressure a progressive pass or dribble from Atleti. This can be seen in the photos below.
The photo above shows a combination of the 4-2 shape and the closeness of Oguiza and Unzué. This allowed the pivot to collapse on the Atleti player and regain possession.
Atleti grew into the game and had most of the possession, and Athletic became more counter attack oriented. This shift meant that they needed center forward Lucía García to hold up the ball or move it along quickly when needed whenever Athletic regained possession. García did this brilliantly. It is an important attribute for a player to have the ability to do what her team needs her to, especially when the circumstances change in game. The first example is when she needed to move the ball quickly, and she did. In the photo below, García uses a clever flick from a pass from her defender to find a teammate. She then turns and runs into the space. The play results in a corner for Athletic.
She also used her body to shield the ball, turn, and create a counter attacking situation from a play that started from a throw in in her own half.
García also had the awareness when she needed to keep possession rather than look to turn or go forward. In the following scenario, she finds Oguiza who then switches the field and Athletic are out of a disadvantageous situation.
For the build up to Athletic's second goal, García finds herself on the shoulder of Atleti's center back. She makes a good run off the back shoulder and in the seam between the center backs. She gets on the end of her teammate's pass and squares for Azkone to finish the match winner.
This was an important victory for Athletic because the race for the remaining 2 Women's Champions League spots in the Primera Iberdrola is very tight. Their next game is against Barcelona which will be more than difficult, but it will be interesting to see if they can pull off a top 3 finish.
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