From the moment the draw was announced, England knew it could come to this, a replay of the 2023 World Cup final which the Lionesses lost on that agonising night in Sydney.
Players were divided by the reign of then manager Jorge Vilda even before the scandal which overshadowed the final, the Spanish federation’s former president Luis Rubiales forcibly kissing striker Jenni Hermoso on the lips as the squad collected their medals.
The legal battles that followed have, in much of the public imagination, superseded Spain’s achievements on the pitch.
The goal that booked Spain's place in their first ever Women's Euros final pic.twitter.com/yOBZNxVrbl
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 23, 2025“The girls deserve to be there to play incredible football. The way our league jumped after we won the Euros [in 2022] – if you compare it to Spain it probably wasn’t the same and they won the World Cup.
When collecting her Women’s Coach of the Year award that summer, Sarina Wiegman paid tribute to the Spanish players who had won not only a major tournament but a new era when Rubiales ultimately resigned and Vilda – who had himself been accused of controlling behaviour – was sacked.
In September 2023, a month after winning the World Cup, La Liga F players went on strike over poor wages, with a minimum salary eventually agreed of just €21,000 (£18,000). That has increased by about €2,500 a year since.
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Mariona Caldentey, who joined Arsenal in 2024, told the BBC that “we won the World Cup and it changed nothing”.
The cultural and institutional battles in which Spanish players have had to enlist are not over.
This time, Hermoso will not be a part of it, having been left out of the squad, but much of the heart of that World Cup-winning side – Bonmati, Caldentey, Alexia Putellas – remains the same.
The Lionesses have so often talked of a “new England” as a way of avoiding complacency or revelling in their previous successes, but they come up against a new Spain desperate to put their recent history behind them.
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