Athletic 5 – Extremadura 0

Athletic Club will present the following starting line-up against Extremadura: Ainhoa, Vanessa, Itsaso, Marta M., Nekane, Iraia, Orueta, Gangoiti, A. Olabarrieta, Zuriñe and Erika. On the bench will be I. Carcamo, I. Murua, Ibarra, Eba, Nerea Perez, Garazi and Sandra.

For Extremadura: Emmeline, Gemma López, Cristiane, Azahara, Tamara, María Gómez, Piedad, Cacao, Estefa, Lorena and María Ángeles. On the bench will be Gemma, Marga, Mari Jose, Anita and Aroa.

Referee: Salguero, assisted by Pérez and Larrazabal.

12:02. Match kicks-off

(2′) Shot by Erika, repelled by a defence
(4′) Cacao faces Ainhoa, but her shot goes directly to the Navarra goalie’s feet
(12′) Centre by Vanessa from the wing, the ball escapes the hands of the Extremadura goalie, but in the end, after two rojiblanco attempts, the ball just doesn’t want to go in
(15′) Good ball by Vanessa behind the defence, Erika wins the ball but her shot is fended off to corner by Emily
(16′) Corner is taken and Arrate Orueta barely heads wide
(24′) 1-0 GOOOAAAL by Erika. Amazing rojiblanca pressure against Extremadura; stolen ball and Nekane centres back where Erika arrives and beats the goalie with a diagonal shot
(40′) 2-0 GOOOAAAL by Iraia; Lobbed shot by Erika, Iraia reaches for the score

13:04. Second Half begins

(46′) Substitution Extremadura. Gemma López leaves and in comes Anita
(57′) Double substitution Athletic. Ibarra and Eba substitute Zuriñe and Gangoiti
(59′) Eli Ibarra sees the visiting goalie off her mark and tries to surprise her from afar, making Emmeline deflect to corner with difficulty
(65′) Estela booked with yellow for holding Erika
(68′) Substitution Athletic. Irune Murua replaces Nekane
(69′) Substitution Extremadura. María Gómez is out and in comes Marga
(74′) 3-0 GOOOAAAL by Irune Murua; Cross that Irune Murua picks up and with her left beats Emmeline
(79′) 4-0 GOOOAAAL! Magnificent goal by Iraia; Eli Ibarra hangs the ball, and Iraia, without letting it drop, hits the volley starting into the net
(80`) Substitution Extremadura: Aroa comes in for Cacao
(81′) 5-0 GOOOAAAL by Amaia Olabarrieta; Emmeline deflects the ball and an alert Amaia Olabarrieta kicks it into the net
(83′) Double substitution; for Athletic Sandra comes in for Amaia Olabarrieta, while for Extremadura, Tamara leaves and in comes Gemma
(84′) Great occasion for Eli Ibarra but her shot hits the crossbar
(90′) Strong shot by Erika just over the crossbar

Iñigo Juaristi: ‘We want third place.’

We’ve clearly defeated Extremadura on the marker, but it hasn’t been an easy match. The rain marked the flow of the game and made it so that the ball could practically not circulate, which gave way to somewhat abusing the direct game. Extremadura closed up the back well and didn’t let us play our game, especially during the first half. On re-start, with the marker in our favour, we prevailed in all aspects of the game and the physical aspect was also noticed.

As far as the objective of the third position, the draw by Espanyol makes us, with two matchdays to go, have a two-point advantage over them and are going to try our best to win both matches to finish in third place.

Another appealing objective is that Erika is the leading scorer in the category. She has 25 goals and we’ll try that she scores the most possible in these two matchdays that are left so that she achieves it.

As far as giving a little rest to some players, it’s true that we started thinking a bit about the Copa since the day of the Rayo, not only in the rotations aspect, where we don’t have too many possibilities either since our squad is small, but also in other aspects of the game, like trying different game styles, systems, etc, that can be useful in the Copa competition.