Arsenal loanee concedes 7 despite 9 saves | OneFootball

Arsenal loanee Karl Hein had to suffer through another terrible Real Valladolid performance on Sunday, with his team losing 7-1 to Athletic Club.

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Arsenal goalkeeper Karl Hein is on loan with Real Valladolid for the 2024/25 campaign, and whilst he’s surely grateful for all the minutes he’s getting, he won’t be enjoying their form.

Going into Sunday’s game away to Athletic Club, Real Valladolid were on a five-game losing streak, and it wasn’t about to end.

Athletic Club ran away with the first half, leading 4-0 at the break, and though Valladolid pulled one back in the 47th minute, Stanko Juric’s subsequent red card swung the momentum back in the host’s favour.

Three goals in the remaining 34 minutes ensured another emphatic defeat for Hein’s side.

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Conceding seven goals is never a good look for a goalkeeper, but the result could have been a lot worse if not for Hein.

The Arsenal 22-year-old made nine saves and two high claims, and his pass accuracy was at a relatively high 78%, particularly encouraging considering over half of his passes were long balls.

Yet it must feel difficult to take any positives from a night where your team lost 7-1 to leave them seven points shy of 19th place in the table.

Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images

Avoiding relegation is still very much mathetically possible. 17th-place Las Palmas are only eight points ahead of Real Valladolid, so a few wins would immediately put the team back in the mix.

If that’s going to happen, it has to happen now. Valladolid’s next game is against Las Palmas, and the following match is against a fellow relegation battler in Valencia. If they can’t secure wins in those fixtures, that might be it for their chances.

Hein will be glad to escape back to Arsenal at the conclusion of the season, with his loan side not having any option to buy.