On September 6, 347 days after breaking the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, Caroline Weir returned to play an official match for Madrid. The Scotswoman, who had been injured with her national team in Glasgow against Belgium on September 26, 2023, started in Real’s league debut against Espanyol. Almost a year after the injury that punished her, the attacker signed a performance at the Ciutat Esportiva Dani Jarque that was reminiscent of the differential footballer who had landed in Valdebebas in the summer of 2022 after ending her contract with Manchester City. Weir gave an assist – a cross from a set piece – and scored two goals – two crossed shots with his left foot – in the 62 minutes he was on the pitch to get the white team’s victory back on track, almost as if he had not spent an entire season on the dam. dry.
The good return of the talented 29-year-old Scot has so far been very measured by Alberto Toril. The coach, who knows what it is like to recover from a ligament injury because he suffered it in both knees, has managed with her the dosage of minutes, a plan to stagger her return with the idea that little by little she reaches her peak of form. . It hasn’t reached that point yet, but the white coach sees it close. “He goes through discomfort that prevents him from accelerating his performance. She is a vital player for us, she gives us a lot of talent in the final third. When it is there, the plays become clearer and there are more possibilities of success in front of goal. I hope I find that little spot [para estar] as before. He is on the way, he is going to achieve it and he will make us win games and titles. “It is ready for tomorrow,” Toril said at a press conference on Wednesday, referring to the Super Cup semifinals against Real Sociedad (7:00 p.m., La2) in Butarque (Leganés), where Madrid is seeking its first final of the tournament with the doubt of whether central defender Lakrar will arrive in time after injuring her left ankle on Sunday against Eibar.
Since her return, the Real player with the most resources in the final third of the field has improved physically and accumulated more and more minutes. He has only finished five of the 21 games (1,357 minutes) he has played this season – seven substitutions and nine substitutions – but his numbers are beginning to resemble those of 2022-2023, when he scored 28 goals and distributed 16 assists. In this one she already has six goals and nine final passes, and she is the most decisive Madrid player in attack. According to the model of the company specialized in high performance sports data Hudl Statsbomb, she is the third player in the F League who gives the most key passes to her teammates – deliveries with which they are left in a position from which they shoot at the rival goal. with 3.01 per game, only behind the Blaugranas Caroline Graham Hansen (3.38) and Alexia Putellas (3.04).
Weir’s progression – step by step he is recovering the gestural speed he had before the injury – and the summer signings have been fundamental for Real to take a leap in level this season. White will play in the Champions League quarter-finals for the second time in their history – they came second in the group stage after beating the leader Chelsea -, they are second in the League with a good cushion of points over the third-placed teams and they are in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey. Queen. The return of the left-footed attacker and the additions have boosted a team that suffered a setback last year after her injury. The Scot grew up in the city of Dunfermline watching the Galacticos’ Real Madrid and idolizing Zinedine Zidane, the man who in 2002 nailed the iconic volley in Glasgow in the entity’s ninth Champions League. “That’s why one of the first kits he had in his life was the white Real Madrid kit with Zidane’s number 5 on the back,” says a source close to him. In 2022, when Madrid announced her signing, they published images in which a young Weir was seen playing in the garden of her house dressed in white socks, pants and shirt and the Frenchman’s number.
The midfielder has scored 34 goals since she arrived at the club and is only five away from equaling Esther González’s record (39) as Madrid’s all-time top scorer. This week they will also fight in the Super Cup for the first title of the year. The short format of the tournament gives Real more chances to finally win the first trophy in its history after founding the women’s tournament in 2020 and since then suffering a drought that has left the showcases empty for four and a half seasons. The event in Leganés is a priority for a team that on Sunday lost surprisingly at home against Eibar and was left 11 points behind in the Barça League, the team that dominates the European panorama in football played by women and which is impossible to follow. pace in such a long competition. The blaugranas are already waiting in the final against a Madrid that they have beaten in their 15 meetings or against a Real Sociedad that only 18 days ago they tortured with a 0-6 in Donostia.
