Whilst much of the weekend’s focus in the European women’s game was on the intense title battles taking place in various locations around the continent, it is easy to forget that there was also some international action for fans to enjoy too, with the 2024 Women’s U17 European Championship reaching its conclusion and Spain securing their fifth title after seeing off the challenge of England in the final.
The annual tournament has always been an exciting fixture in the footballing calendar, with it providing fans with a chance to identify future stars of the global game and to see who has the potential to go the distance. 2024 was no different in that regard, and one player who particularly caught the eye was Spanish forward Alba Cerrato, who currently plays for Sevilla Femenino in Liga F. Capable of playing across the forward line, she cemented her burgeoning reputation as a deadly finisher by ending the tournament as both its top scorer, having scored seven times in the finals, and as the Player of the Tournament.
There is no doubting that Cerrato will be one to watch out for in the future on the strength of her displays out in Sweden, and this tactical analysis will take a closer look at her game to see why she became a crucial component in the Spanish machine, their tactics and why there is a growing feeling that she could follow in the footsteps of some of the country’s greatest strikers.
Attacking threat
When watching Alba Cerrato play, it is clear that she has all of the raw abilities that a top striker needs. She possess exceptional spatial recognition and an awareness of her surroundings, which ultimately helped her to be such a crucial player for her country on their road to glory in Lund and Malmö.
In particular, what has stood out is her ability to play on the shoulder of the opposing defensive line but rarely be caught offside, with her only being shown the flag once throughout all five games in the competition, and so that highlights again her excellent awareness of what is happening around her and how she can position herself in areas where she can give her teammates the opportunity to play the ball forwards but without them seeing chances continually wasted.
Having a player who offers this is a huge advantage when facing opponents who tend to operate with a high backline, as France did on numerous occasions during the tournament. As can be seen, the vast swathes of territory that they have left unoccupied behind their defensive line has given Cerrato and Spain a chance to send the ball up the field and to fashion constant goalscoring opportunities, and the positioning of the former has helped to make that even more of a possibility.
With Cerrato getting 64.8% of her shots on target during the course of the tournament and touching the ball 6.6 times inside the opposing penalty area per game, there is no doubt that she was a threat whenever allowed to run up the field. It is that that leads to Barcelona Femení right-back Martina González showing no hesitation here when the chance was available to send the ball into her teammate’s path.
This was not the only situation in which Cerrato demonstrated how effective her movement could be, though. She also dropped slightly deeper at times and then made runs into areas where it was harder for her opponents to notice her.
In this case, the ball has been moved out towards the far side, and Spain is now looking to deliver it into the middle. On first glance, England seem to have managed the situation well due to central defenders Niamh Peacock and Cecily Wellesley-Smith (of Arsenal Women and Oxford United Women, respectively) working together closely to narrow the angles available to Spain and make it harder for them to create a viable opportunity.
With that in mind, when the ball does penetrate the goal area, Arsenal goalkeeper Hope McSheffrey comes out to claim it and to get her side moving up the field again. However, England have failed to notice that Cerrato has begun to accelerate as soon as the cross has been made, taking their eyes away from her. That proved fatal as the Sevilla player edged between the two defenders and reached the ball ahead of McSheffrey, taking it around her and sending it into the open goal.
It was a really important goal in the context of the game, allowing Spain to take the lead just before the half-time break. The way that Cerrato timed her run to perfection tipped the scales in her side’s favour here. Therefore, there are many ways in which her movement has proven to be key when inside the final third, and it shows again why she was the figurehead of their attack throughout the competition.
There are other aspects of her play that need to be highlighted, though. Not least of which is Cerrato’s versatility. At the beginning of the analysis, it is mentioned that she can play in multiple attacking roles and so offers more than simply an out-and-out goalscoring threat.
In the group games against Poland and Portugal, for example, her role was more focused on using her pace in wider positions to stretch the defenders out both horizontally and vertically. This tactic worked well against both teams as it forced them to commit more numbers to the wide channels and to leave additional spaces open inside the pitch for other Spanish players to exploit.
In this case, Poland duo Krystyna Flis and Iga Witkowska have looked to halt Cerrato’s run but have been unable to, and the result is that Poland ended up conceding a shot on goal once the cross had found another Barcelona player, Ainoa Gómez. It might not have been anything more than that in the end, with Gómez’s shot lacking the power needed to test goalkeeper Julia Woźniak, but the way that it came about indicated how Cerrato contributes to her team’s attacks in multiple ways, and so is never a player that opponents should underestimate.
Working with teammates
As the tournament went on, it became evident that Spain deviated in several ways from the traditional Spanish tactics that many of their other teams favour. Under head coach Kenio Gonzalo, they deployed a more direct style of play rather than fast-paced passing sequences.
However, there are some aspects that they have retained, with one being their desire to keep rotating positionally whenever they are in possession, ensuring that they maintain the unpredictability that has become a signature of their performances.
It is that that has allowed Alba Cerrato to demonstrate other parts of her game, with her not only staying up the pitch but also dropping into deeper pockets of space whenever she can.
However, rather than doing this to increase her offensive threat, her intention here is to connect the play and to allow her side to move the ball up the pitch as quickly as possible. This is shown by her dropping back and receiving the pass that Real Madrid Femenino defender Amaya García sends towards her from further back, which then allows Spain to continue building their attack.
As well as creating passing options when they are needed, this also drags opponents towards her due to the danger that she poses with the ball at her feet and tempts them into making challenges, which happens here as Arsenal’s Omotara Junaid moves to close her down and ends up conceding a foul. Therefore, there are several ways that having an attacker who can operate in these areas is beneficial, and there is no doubt that it has played a vital role in Spain’s fortunes during the last three weeks.
It has also proven useful to Sevilla, with Cerrato moving into a gap between the Levante Las Planas Femenino lines here and once again looking to help her side move the ball up the pitch. However, on this occasion, the opposing side was able to quickly surround her and prevent her from gaining too much ground, and Sevilla’s attention at that point switched towards retaining the ball and not giving it away cheaply.
As Cerrato proved here, this is something that she especially thrives at, with her never losing her composure and ensuring that, despite the best efforts of Levante Las Planas to win the ball from her, they were unable to accomplish that and so were unable to launch an attack of their own.
Keeping possession in moments like this has been vital when playing the Barcelona-based club this season. A key strength in their game plan is their ability to instigate rapid counterattacks through the pace of players like Serbian international Allegra Poljak. Both Barcelona and Real Madrid looked vulnerable to this when facing them in the league in recent weeks, and so the fact that Cerrato was able to avoid that happening to Sevilla here was one reason that her team ended up winning this Copa de la Reina tie.
It is not only in attacking situations where Cerrato has worked with teammates, though, with her also contributing to their defensive play too, and this is another way in which her awareness of what is happening around her has come into use. In this case, she had recognised that the clearance from Real Madrid goalkeeper Laia López had not found one of her teammates and had instead landed favourably for France and that Lyon Féminin’s Ambre Ouazar had rushed to control the ball in a bid to move it back up the field as part of a counterattack.
However, what Ouazar had not realised here was that Cerrato had read her intentions and had moved to close her down at speed, with the result being that she managed to dislodge the ball early on and was able to eradicate the counterattack at source. Given that Cerrato won 58.4% of her defensive duels and made six interceptions during Spain’s five matches at the tournament, there is no doubt that she is just as capable without the ball as she is with it, and that that allows her to work with those in her vicinity to help her team succeed.
Things to improve on
While the scout report has laid out the many positives in Alba Cerrato’s game, what should be remembered is that she is still just 17 years old, so she has a long career ahead of her, and she is far from a finished product. With that in mind, there are plenty of things that she can still work on as she continues to rise through the age levels.
One of those is her passing when in promising areas of the field, with there being plenty of occasions when she has connected with teammates (as shown by her 62.4% passing accuracy for the tournament) but also occasions when she has lacked quality with the ball at her feet. In this case, she was initially under pressure from Belgium getting tight to her from behind, and she might have felt that she didn’t have time to retain the ball for too long here, but it is clear to see that those competing with her in this duel had backed off at the moment that she did release the ball.
As a result of her perhaps not realising this in time, she ended up rushing her pass and sending it too far behind her, meaning that Spain lost their momentum and another Real Madrid player, Irune Dorado, was forced to track back a reasonable distance to regain the ball. It didn’t completely end the attack, but it certainly slowed it down, and that will always play into the defending teams’ hands due to them having more time to plug any gaps that might have previously been present.
This, in many ways, links in with Cerrota’s decision-making, which is another aspect of her play that she perhaps needs to focus on over time. There have been occasions when she has had options available to her and has made the wrong choice on balance. This was one of those moments, with her receiving the ball from Real Madrid’s Silvia Cristóbal in another gap and once again finding herself in a duel with the Belgian defensive line as Club YLA defender Chionne Bonny looks to remove the ball from her possession.
The key thing to note here is that Cristóbal had continued her inside run once she had sent the ball forwards and was looking for the return pass to be made, at which point she would have had enough of a gap ahead of her to either run through or shoot at goal through. However, Cerrato did not spot this, and instead, the ball was moved towards Dorado, who was positioned further back.
It wasn’t the worst thing to do, but it was perhaps the harder of the two options that Cerrato had to choose from. It made it more difficult for Spain to keep their attack alive, with them having to take more time to find a way through the Belgian rearguard.
Another problem that has become apparent during Cerrato’s performances is that, whilst there is no doubting that she has the pace to play on the wings and to execute the demands that Spain have from those who occupy those positions, her ability to cross the ball into the middle has tended to let her down. During the tournament, just four of her 11 crosses in total found their intended targets, giving her an overall accuracy of just 24.6%.
As her heatmap indicates, she spent long periods of time in the wide channels. She needs to work on increasing her precision and not seeing chances break down too early. Doing so will lead to her becoming even more of a complete player and, therefore, a more appealing option for coaches further down the line.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this tactical analysis has looked in detail at young Spanish attacker Alba Cerrato, highlighting the role that she played in her nation’s triumph at the recent Women’s U17 European Championship and indicating the aspects of her play that have led to her attracting so much positive attention from fans and the media alike.
When looking at her game as a whole, there is no doubt that Cerrato is destined for great things. Spain has always produced exceptional goalscoring talent, and this analysis has shown how she has the potential to reach the top and be a future star of the global game.
She needs to work on some things, but that is only natural at her age, and it is always good to have something to improve on as players strive for perfection. However, she has so much raw talent and is certainly one to keep an eye on, and it would not be a surprise to see her linked with some of Europe’s major sides in the future if she does continue on her current trajectory.
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