The Matildas have suffered a humbling seven-goal loss to Spain at Estadio Nuevo Colombino.
The Australians entered their first-ever international meeting with the No.7 ranked side with several of their squad’s more experienced players sitting out, in what turned out to be an experiment gone wrong.
Midfielder Katrina Gorry almost had the opening goal of the match when she let fly from outside the box, hitting the crossbar.
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The new-look Matildas line-up kept things respectable for the first half, only down 1-0 at the break after a wonderstrike from Aitana Bonmati in the 43rd minute flew past the outstretched arm of Teagan Micah.
But Spain turned up the intensity in the second half, piling on six goals including three in the space of 12 minutes.
As the hosts’ list of goal scorers quickly grew, any hope of the Matildas making a stunning comeback disappeared.
The floodgates later opened again with three more goals conceded in the final 10 minutes.
Matildas manager Tony Gustavsson had earlier promised to give opportunities to domestic stars for the friendly – which he honoured with Jamilla Rankin and Taylor Ray making their international debuts.
Former Socceroo and commentator Andy Harper questioned why the Matildas made so many team changes with the FIFA World Cup just around the corner.
“A lot of people, devotees of the Matildas … will be thinking, ‘Why this, why now?'” Harper told Ten.
“That’s the question that will be reverberating.”
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