Spain will compete in their first-ever UEFA Women’s Euro final on Sunday, when they face England at Basel’s St Jakob-Park. The reigning World Champions saw off the Lionesses two years ago to claim...
Spain will compete in their first-ever UEFA Women’s Euro final on Sunday, when they face England at Basel’s St Jakob-Park. The reigning World Champions saw off the Lionesses two years ago to claim their maiden FIFA Women’s World Cup triumph – and they’ll be hoping to do the same again as they strive to become champions of Europe for the first time.
“It’s a final, we know it’s going to be a hard-fought match against a great team: the current European champions,” Montse Tomé explained in her pre-match press conference on Saturday. “We’ve already faced them twice this year, we know how demanding the match will be. In terms of the team, which I can control, I feel that we have 23 players who – when we feel that the match is going one way or another – we can call on any of them. We have seen this since the start of the Euros, with different players with different profiles playing at different times, which means that they are all prepared so that tomorrow, if we need them, they will be available.”
“Now we have the team we want, we can see the team we have been working on for a long time. I think that this year we have been putting the pieces together to get to where we are now, with the players we want, with the players who represent what we feel, and we are in the final of the Euros, so I am very happy with what we have achieved.”
“The team is doing well,” Tomé assured, explaining that “we are adjusting our training to be ready for tomorrow. We have been able to do different sessions, adapting them to the players who have had different playing times, and yesterday we were able to prepare for the match back in Lausanne. They are eager for the match to start, but I think they are becoming more experienced in how to handle the hours leading up to it. Right now, we are focusing on today’s session and getting a feel for the pitch where we will play tomorrow.”
As for what she expects from Sunday’s title decider, the 43-year-old Oviedo native revealed: “I expect a very even match against a team that also likes to attack. I think England are characterised by that, they have a very potent attack, a strong midfield and a defence capable of playing out from the back. This means that at certain moments we will have to apply pressure and defend well, but above all I expect an even match and what the matches at Wembley and in Barcelona have taught us is that I feel we deserved more at Wembley because we had chances, we had possession.”
“They are a very competitive team, I think they are also showing that in this tournament, where sometimes they don’t seem to be playing well, but they end up winning. That says a lot about their competitiveness, and the match in Barcelona was a fairly even match in the first half. In fact, we were losing and then turned the score around because we really dominated England in the second half. As I said, it’s a final, a great rival, and it’s going to be quite even.”
For Tomé, this represents a first major final with La Roja after their failure to reach the gold medal match at the 2024 Olympics. “I don’t think about the pressure,” she insists. “What I think about is that throughout the tournament we have been making history by reaching the semi-finals for the first time, reaching a final for the first time, and beating Germany for the first time.”
“I feel that we have been achieving goals, which is why we are here today. The first goal we achieved, which we talked about in the dressing room, was that when we started, we had the dream of playing six matches, and we’re going to play them. What I believe is that England are defending their title, England are the current European champions. We want to compete well, enjoy it and go for it.”
Category: General Sports
