Real Madrid won — against Villarreal to qualify for the quarter finals of Copa de la Reina. Below are my thoughts and views on the match.
Grid View
Real Madrid XI
Villarreal XI
Substitutes
Mylene Chavas started on goal. Antonia and Oihane started as fullbacks, giving Olga some rest, whereas Oihane was the one to play as LB. Tere and Toletti are the pivot duo. Navarro and Athenea operating on wings with Redondo taking the #10 role and Naomie Feller leading the line.
Villarreal's low block with a 5-4-1 off-the-ball was a difficult task to beat for Real Madrid. Most actions were attempted from the right-hand side with Navarro and Antonia, however neither were used to combining with one of the midfielders to break Villarreal's formation. The lack of triangles with the midfield allowed the opponents to push Las Blancas wide and not let them inside, no matter how many dribbles were attempted. For the good portion of the match the only effort made were runs on the wide area in hopes of managing to dribble past a player of two. Two of the first concrete actions of the game were from a long ball from behind into the box and a quick counter by Feller that ended in a foul on the Frenchwoman. Real Madrid's best bet in this game plan were long balls to skip over Villarreal's block, as it happened in the first goal of the match. Both goals came from aerial dodge of Villarreal's horizontal lines and it showed that the yellow submarine knew what they were doing with their low block.
Las Blancas started the second half strong, with more concrete answers to how to break Villarreal's low block. Feller was gravitating more toward the wide area at times to help, especially after Navarro was subbed off of for Møller in 68' and then the Shei for Lakrar sub in 73' who made the right hand-side function better. After the last substitution in 73', the synergy between Feller and Shei was apparent, even though they made a few mis passes between each other, that side of the pitch still looked sharper with the two of them. Carla Camacho also got on in 73', for Alba Redondo and in her first minute on the pitch she was well positioned in the box to receive a cross from the left, however she missed it by an inch. She spent the rest of her time on pitch as a #9, with Møller operating behind her.
31': GOAL (0-1) by Alba Redondo: a chip pass over Villarreal's defensive line by Tere followed by a chip shot over the goalkeeper from Redondo. A perfect combination to open up the scoresheet.
62': GOAL (0-2) by Teresa Abelleira: the ball recovered from Quesada's clearance was capitalized by Tere who took a long-range shot while the goalkeeper was still out of position. A worldie scored by the assistant of the first goal.
Important victory to give Real Madrid the ticket for the quarter finals of Copa de la Reina and finish the year 2024 on a strong note.