The Guardian's Women's Football Weekly - Euros’ big hitters win but Netherlands go Dutch – Women’s Football Weekly

Episode Date: July 10, 2022

Faye Carruthers, Karen Carney, Alex Ibaceta and Nick Ames reflect on the hotly-anticipated clash between the Netherlands and Sweden and round up the rest of the action

Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. The Guardian Women's Football Weekly is supported by Visa. Hello, I'm Faye Carruthers and welcome to the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. In the most anticipated match of the tournament so far, the Netherlands went Dutch with Sweden,

while underdogs Portugal show potential to cause an upset in Group C, which now looks like it's become the group of death. An inspired Spain come from behind and beat Finland after a puteus pep talk. Germany are quite good, right? And Caroline Graham-Hanson might still be nutmegging players in Southampton.

Another record broken as well, this time the biggest attendance at a Women's Euros match, not including a host nation, and almost as many goals scored in the first five minutes than in the entirety of Euro 2017. We'll look back at all the games from Group A to C, look ahead to Group D, take your questions, and that's today's Guardian Women's Football Weekly is supported by Visa, a proud sponsor of UEFA Women's Euro 2022.

In 2018, Visa became the first ever UEFA sponsor dedicated to women's football and is now one of the world's most active sponsors of the sport. Its global investment in women's football includes sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Women's Champions League, as well as the US Soccer Federation and the US Women's National Team. Through the company's sponsorship of the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023

and other leading women's football organisations around the world, the company strives to be a catalyst for change and contribute to the growing recognition of women's football. Visa is committed to growing women's football at all

levels, increasing visibility and future-proofing the women's football at all levels, increasing visibility and future-proofing the women's game. Find out more at theguardian.com slash all hyphen win. Oh, right. OK, what a panel we have for you today. Women's football journalist, freelance Alex Ibaseta, busy everywhere at the moment. How are you doing? Yeah, not bad. Not bad?

I saw you partying with the Orange Army last night. I'm still recovering a bit this morning. Yeah, well, I mean, you don't look it, to be fair, but we shall see how we get on in 40 minutes' time. Now then, we have a legend in our midst. 144 England caps to her name. Good morning, Karen Carney. Good morning. How are you all?

Very, very well, thank you. Nick Ames, always a pleasure. How are you? I'm good. I haven't got quite as many England caps and nor am I a legend, but I'll do my best. Oh, you're a legend to us, Nick, except for the fact that you came on and the first thing you said this morning is, sorry, but I have to leave. So you're going to have to do the end of it without me. Where are you going? That might be my best contribution. I'm going up to Manchester

to see Erling Haaland be unveiled for the men's team, which might be a tough ask as he doesn't like talking much, as you might know. Yeah, yeah, I definitely know that. Well, I mean, biffed off for Erling Haaland. I think we can cope with that, although I feel slightly, slightly offended. Right, the orange wall descended on Sheffield and reigning champions, the Netherlands, kicked off their tournament with a one-all draw with Olympic silver medalists Sweden. A goal from recent Chelsea Departee, Jonna Andersson, cancelled out in the second half by former Arsenal player Jill Roard. I mean, this was quite an event, wasn't it? Alex, let's start with you because you were there.

Potentially the best day out of the tournament that we've had so far. They absolutely packed out Sheffield. Their famous fan walk just looked absolutely incredible what was the atmosphere actually like to be there? Yeah it was it was amazing it started quite early on which is really interesting um you were kind of starting the day and celebrating around like 2 p.m 1 p.m and obviously kickoff isn't until 8 p.m so you're looking down everything's starting and you look down and you kind of like all right there's still seven hours obviously kickoff isn't until 8pm so you're looking down everything's starting and you look down and you kind of like all right there's still seven hours until kickoff what am I going to do for those seven hours um and the answer is just party um you're celebrating

everyone just being there and it was amazing the the atmosphere brought by the Dutch fans is you know rivaled by no one at the moment everyone shows up the what I like about the Dutch fans is that they organize everything so everyone's in the same place doing the same thing all the way up to the match which is obviously very different when you have the same amount of fans just everyone kind of doing their own thing and it's not really the same atmosphere but yeah it was it was a dj it was a party from the start and then obviously the fan walk was unbelievable i missed it in 2019 france so i've been waiting since then for this moment and we did the fan walk and it was you know

it was everything you you kind of imagined it to be and it was really entertaining to see all the the people not really going to football match out on the streets, just being like, what's happening here exactly? Just being very confused, very overwhelmed. And it was really nice. But, you know, the Dutch fans brought atmosphere. Although I would say that the Swedish fans brought the atmosphere at the stadium. So that was really interesting to see kind of the flip from before kickoff and after kickoff. Well, that is interesting. And I suppose if you live in Sheffield and you didn't know that there was a

major tournament going on, you certainly do now. It was something of a grudge match though, wasn't it, Karen, that the Netherlands knocked Sweden out of the 2017 Euros and the 2019 World Cup. Seemed pretty likely that if someone was going to win this, then they're going to top the group. Obviously, loads of the players know each other as well. The sight of Magda Eriksson going up against Vivian Miedema, pretty familiar to us in the WSL. But how much do these rivalries as a player play into your mind

when you come into a tournament? I don't think it'd be necessary rivals in this group game. I think you just want to get the result done. I'd say obviously two heavyweights, I would say, in the women's Euros this summer, both of them. I think the Netherlands have kind of come under the radar, not under the radar, but I know the current champions, but I think because of the result against England,

everyone's kind of played them down a little bit. And even myself, I've gone more Sweden heavy. And fair play to me, never write champions off. And I don't mean that in the Netherlands in a disrespectful way. I do think because of how England performed in the result there, people have kind of said maybe not this time. But I thought the second half there was superb. And we mentioned Viv Miedema there.

I thought she was exceptional in the second half. I thought tactically Holland played it really well the second half in terms of, if you watch Viv's clip, she was more playing on the left-hand side where the gaps were. And I thought she played that really well. Role players and just use the space when the fullbacks went on of Sweden. But sometimes as a player, I get a bit nervous and say, how will it look on TV? Because I've been going to the games live.

And I have to say that game last night had skill, strength, speed, power. And sometimes you get worried that if someone's new, is watching the sport, they might not enjoy it. But I have to say I sat back and absolutely thoroughly loved these two heavyweights going head to head at it and it was a great game Yeah it's definitely the game that I should have told that taxi driver in

Manchester to go and watch for sure. Nick the Netherlands lost two of their starters to injury in the first half and two big names as well, goalkeeper Sarri van Veenendaal and central defender Anik Nauwen. But it kind of galvanised them, didn't it, weirdly?

Yeah, it did. They found another gear or two, and you've got to give credit to the sub-keeper because she played a blinder. A couple of, I think, one very good save that I can remember, particularly in the second half, I think, after the equaliser. And they look very composed. And I think that composure is what you need during a tournament.

When you're a big side, you have to be able to ride with the punches. And they were two quite heavy ones. And I felt overall, just as Karen was saying as well, it felt like a tournament game with edge and intensity, a bit of tension, a bit of snap about it. And I felt that was really encouraging that we could see two top teams, top, top teams turn up this early at a major tournament and give people that. And that doesn't mean there was a chance a minute or something like that.

It was a good, tactical, intense game of football. And I have to echo also what was said about Miedema. I thought for the equaliser by Jill Ruud, even though the ball came to her from a bit of a ricochet in the end, that all came because Miedema did an incredible spin, really tight on my touchline, quite near halfway, losing her marker. Absolutely fantastic piece of skill to start that move. And that was encouraging too, that Miedema's turned up from the start. I felt, you know, we saw a great piece of skill as well that move and that was encouraging too that that that midamars turned up

from the start i felt you know we saw a great piece of skill as well didn't we from because of our aslani for the sweden goal and i think it's a very good thing for the tournament if a we're seeing a real ding dong tight head to head like that and also if some of the big names are turning up and providing these moments which which people like us appreciate, but also people who might be watching a tournament for the first time will, will go home and be able to rave about really. Yeah. Another player who,

who stood out, Alex, Jackie Groening. We kind of expected that anyway, but there was a tweet after the match that amused me saying 70% of the earth is covered by water and the rest is Jackie Grunen. How important was she in this match? Yeah, look, there's no words to say how Jackie Grunen played yesterday.

I mean, just starting with the techers that she pulled off, I think three or four times where I was just like, just like kind of reacting, not really realizing that the people around me didn't really know the players so I think I was reacting a bit too much and they were just like you need to calm down just a little bit please um but no she's she's amazing I think that midfields is one of the most composed midfields mostly because of Sharia Spitzin and Shaki who have a very similar role but then Shin brings in that little extra spice and flavor that you don't really expect from a holding midfielder sometimes. But look, her ball recovery, her distribution, her takers to get out of tight spaces, it's unrivaled sometimes and perhaps most of the time undervalued because she doesn't have, you know, the glory goals

and she doesn't have, you know, all the assists, but she's probably doing one of the most important jobs on the pitch of keeping a solid defensive line in front of that back four. And on top of that, you know, distribution and ball recovery and just kind of, she's the engine of that midfield. And, you know, it's unbelievable how good she is sometimes getting out of small spaces we've seen it you know with she did a simple comeback and

she just left two players um in her desk quite easily and that's undervalued because then she's able to you know if Viv is playing as a 10 like she did a little bit yesterday she's able to give the ball to Viv into space because she's dragged in um the Swedish defenders and Viv is able to get into that space as we saw with Joe Ward as well three times so the importance of Shaki Grunen is amazing and even if you don't understand the tactics of it she's just a really good player to watch. Yeah she really is how would you have approached the game Karen because as the opening game of a tournament two favourites the history as said, doesn't come into play in your mind. But how do you go into a game like that? I think it's hard because, obviously, you mentioned earlier,

the group is ridiculously tight. It's hard. And I think, obviously, going into this game, you want to beat them because you want to top the group. You want to have control. You want to have autonomy. And you want to hit the ground running with the tournament. And that builds confidence that builds momentum so I think it's

the opening game especially for both these teams playing against such top quality opposition sometimes you just want to play someone you're probably expected to win so then you start growing and growing and getting stronger and stronger and pretty much maybe I shouldn't say this but how England did it the other day I don't think England played particularly well the other day, but they got the result and then you grow on and grow on. But they've gone in, they've been to Sweden playing a banging game. That was, for me, like a final game.

Do you know what I mean? You wouldn't expect that in the first game for them, so that's hard for the players. But then someone might challenge me and go, well, at least they're prepared. If they do progress out of the group, they've had a big game, they've dusted it if you hadn't you wouldn't be as prepared so obviously I've just answered it as a player you think lots of different things and you don't know sometimes

which one's best for you but you just want to try and get the three points but but like I said earlier I just think for me I sat back and loved that game last night I actually turned more into fan than trying to learn as a pundit because it was just so good and credit to everyone that went to the game and created the atmosphere and you can hear from Alex's voice as well she got involved and um it looks like she's recovering a little bit maybe yeah exactly so um but yeah I think it's just the first one's just dusting it off because you just don't know how you feel, even body-wise as well. Yeah, it's interesting. Louis van Gaal, the coach of the Netherlands men's team, was there as well.

It was a record crowd for a women's Euros group game as well, not involving the hosts. 21,342 there. I feel as if we're just going to keep having records falling left, right and centre in this tournament in particular. But let's have a quick focus on Sweden, because they went into the tournament as one of the favourites. And listen, I'm looking at Susie Rack right now, because she was bigging up their chances. But forgive me if I'm wrong, it felt as if something was missing. And it was really hard for me to put my finger on what it was, but they just didn't feel as much as if they were hitting their stride. But perhaps that was me watching it on the telly

and expecting great things, Nick. What did you think? Yeah, maybe you want to see a team turn the screw a little bit more in that kind of situation after they've gone a goal up, for example. I mean, if you're comparing them, this might be a simplistic comparison, but I was at the Germany game the other night against Denmark, which we will come to, and Germany did not stop.

And their intensity and pressing and everything about them was really insistent. And I felt, and again, others might disagree, I just felt maybe Sweden weren't quite as intense, quite as insistent, and maybe not quite as, I don't know, maybe they didn't turn the screw to the extent that they could have. But, you know, they still had chances to win it in the second half. So maybe we're being harsh.

Maybe they were just coming up against a very, very good opponent, which I think they quite obviously were. Yeah. It's made it a very interesting group. This is a tweet that's come in to us from Glenn Naylor. Would anyone have put Portugal-Switzerland down as the most entertaining game so far before the tournament began? And I think the answer, Glenn, is no. But your sentiments are definitely echoed around Twitter. It was a barnstormer, wasn't it?

I mean, such a fast start from Switzerland, 2-0 up within the first four or five minutes, thanks to a wonder goal from Columbus Sao and a header from Rehal Kiwic before Portugal came back into the second half with equalisers from Diana Gomez and Jessica Silva. This was an absolute cracker. And actually, either team could have won it

in the second half as well, Alex. Yeah, it definitely wasn't expected, kind of what you saw. You would have potentially expected Switzerland to edge it. I mean, and they were 2-0 up and somehow lost that. But with the players that each team has, Switzerland do have players that play at a higher level than Portugal do. But then at the same time, Portugal have the advantage that most players play in Portugal. So most of these players do play together.

There's six from Sporting, I think it was, and there's six players from the top clubs. So Portugal, while don't play out of Portugal, they all play together. So that's a big advantage

that they have. But yeah, look, with the players that, you know, with Leo Valti, with Ana Maria, Ternovo to each, Romano Backman, you would expect Switzerland to be able to just edge it. I'm not saying, you know, a win of 4-0 easily, but you probably would expect them to maybe score a bit more goals if Portugal was kind of coming on to them. But yeah, I mean, yesterday was an exciting day

and Switzerland, Portugal, again, not to disrespect, but unfortunate for them. You know, now Sweden and the Netherlands have to go off goal difference to see who tops the group. So it's going to be really hard for them to kind of control that. And once, I think the Netherlands more than Sweden, I think once the Netherlands get going

and get a couple of goals in, it's really hard. They get into a really good tempo usually and they do get high scoring games. So it's going to be really interesting to see how Switzerland and Portugal kind of go off of this first match and get into, you know, the harder matches of this group.

Interestingly, Karen, Portugal, the only team in women's Euros history not to lose after being two or more goals down at half time. I mean, the result didn't suit either side, exactly as Alex alluded to with Netherlands and Sweden. But perhaps people underestimated Portugal because they were late call-ups, obviously replacing Russia. But they looked a really good team. It's funny, I saw one of my Portuguese teammates in Manchester the other day and I think I just smiled when I saw her.

And the rest of the teammates were there. I think not in a bad way. I think obviously getting the late call-up, I just got the impression, they're like, right, let's just go enjoy it. You know, express ourselves. There's no pressure on us. There's no pressure on ourselves. I think you saw that and then you saw with the goal, when the goal went in, the confidence

of the group just grew and could have gone on and won it. Do you know what I mean? When they brought the subs, I think she had a last chance hitting the post and could have gone on to win it later on. But again, this is a bit cliche and I hate saying it, but yes, that game, 2-2 game, just sums up a tournament game where, you know, you're 2-0 up early on and you don't see out the game. You don't manage the game as effectively. And the cross comes in and you find yourself off a set piece, a ricochet 2-1. And you're thinking, right, you're back in the game now. And you're like, that's a tournament kind of, as a player, I'm thinking that's really naive for us.

I think it just gave the confidence then for Portugal. And like I said, another cross comes in don't defend it well, it was a great finish and could have gone on and won it but that's what you don't do well, Switzerland you tune a lot, you don't see out the game and I think that for me, something as a player we'd be kicking ourselves with because they're controllables

but let them back in the game and they could have won it so I feel like Portugal, they're just here and they're just going to keep going with it. There's no expectations on them or themselves and they're just going to enjoy it and see where it takes them. Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see what they can potentially do. Switzerland, though, feel as if they're underperforming a little bit.

We saw them kind of go to pieces against England in that final warm-up game as well. So perhaps a mental strength problem as well, because they have so many good players in the team, Nick, but just don't seem to be able to see games out. Yeah, I think Alex mentioned earlier some of the really experienced heads they've got in that team.

And you would fully have expected after, what was it, four or five minutes that they're two up. You would have thought, A, they should see it out, but B b maybe this is an even better example of what i was talking about with sweden really they could go for the throat and have it finished by half time but i think will unwin our reporter who was at the game

doing our match report summed it up quite well by saying it was almost like they went on holiday for the rest of the game it was lovely sunny. They were two up and maybe they thought maybe there was something subconscious saying, you know, we can drop a gear and see this through. I don't know, but you would certainly expect players of the calibre and experience they've got to have known when to ramp it up and when not. So I was quite disappointed.

You sort of felt you might be on for a bit of a show from them after a few minutes. And in the end, it was a funny game, wasn't it? felt you might be on for a bit of a show from them after a few minutes. And in the end, it was a funny game, wasn't it? Both sides will be kicking themselves a bit. They'll be kicking themselves for the reasons we've just spoken about. But Portugal really had the chances, especially towards added time, to see them off. So one of those games where both teams have got something

to feel happy and not so happy about. Yeah, open Group C. Right, that's it for part one. In part two, we'll discuss the most impressive team so far at the Euros, as well as what Spain without Alexia Puteas looked like, and how Northern Ireland fared in their first ever game at a major tournament. This podcast is supported by Visa. So we wanted to tell you more about how they're helping develop the women's game all over the world. One of their initiatives is providing football camps in places like Turkey, where less than 1% of licensed football players are women. That's why Visa are working with social enterprises like Kizla Sahada to give young girls in the country the chance to play football. Today, we're joined by Chansu,

who recently participated in one of these camps. Chansu, lovely to see you. As we've heard, women's football isn't as big in Turkey as in other parts of the world. So how did you first become interested in it? I never had the chance to play till the age six. And in our neighborhood, boys used to play football all the time. One day they had a player and he didn't come to the match. One of the bigger boys told me that, would you like to be our goalkeeper? That summer I started to go to a summer camp to play football. And you recently took part in what sounded like an amazing football camp,

which was supported by Visa. You won a prize as well. Can you tell us a little bit about that and why it's a real dream come true for you. A few weeks ago, we went to Kızlar Sahada's camp and participated to win the prize to go to the Euro finals in England. And the dream come true part is in 2016, while I was coming back from the US to Turkey. We couldn't catch our flight from London to Turkey and we stayed in London for a day. I wanted to go to Wembley, but because I didn't have a visa,

they told us that we won't be able to go inside Wembley and check the place. So this year I will go to Wembley and we'll be able to see the Euro finals and be a ball kid in the Euro finals. So I'm really happy about that. Chansu, thank you so much for your time. I really hope you enjoy your trip to Wembley. I will see you at the final.

See you. Now back to the show. Welcome back to part two of the Guardians Women's Football Weekly. Now, the group of death, the real group of death, even though Group C is trying to steal, steal its mantle, began on Friday as Spain faced Finland and Germany played Denmark, both teams scoring four to kick off their Euros. But I think it's fair to say that we can all agree Germany were the more impressive of the two. Goals from Lina Magul, Lina Latwein,

Lea Schuller and Alex Popp as well. This is a tweet from Marissa Lordanich. I'm really sorry if I've not pronounced your name properly, Marissa. Lina, Lina and Lia scoring for Germany like some sort of Pokemon evolution shit. Brilliant. Nick, you were at this game. Have Germany kind of flown under everyone's radar a little bit? I'm just putting a little caveat to that. Not on Guardian Women's Football Weekly, they haven't, because they were tipped as one of the favourites.

But what did you think of them? It's incredible, isn't it? Because they've won the thing, what is it, eight times. And we were talking before the tournament about are people going to underestimate them or not. We won't be making that mistake now, will we? I mean, it was a fantastic night's football down at Brentford. And the first thing to say is Denmark were very heavily supported

and really well supported by several thousand out of the 15,000 attendants. Because for anyone who might not know, the men's team at Brentford has been Danish-run and Danish part-owned, and there's a big Danish influence there. So it felt at the outset as if it was set up a bit for Denmark to sort of make hay in their little enclave of West London. And for the first two minutes of the game, it was quite

end-to-end and you felt, OK, we could be in for the kind of ding-dong that we saw last night. But Germany were just fantastic. They were so insistent. Down the flanks, they completely tore them apart. Huth on the right, Ball on the left. Such clever support

and running from Schiller and from Magel from the number 10 position who isn't a player that I get to see every week but I thought was incredibly clever took up great positions scored a fantastic opener and they just kept coming and I mean Denmark I know have had a lot of success with their wing backs going into this but it just felt that Germany knew that and totally nullified it and isolated both of the centre-backs in the back three on either side and completely destroyed them and I mean they hit the woodwork twice before going a goal up they had another couple of chances and it could have been three or four at half time I think the only complaint the coach had afterwards um Ross

Tecklenburg was that they hadn't been clinical enough up to that point and then in the second half they kept coming and just as denmark for made a triple sub bringing on nadia nadine among others and you thought the scale was my tip they scored again scored another couple and what i loved about that performance was that they just kept on coming they kept on coming and it's good for the tournament, I think, to have a statement performance like that. You know, a team showing how good they are and providing a reference for everyone else and a marker. And I think that was what we saw the other night.

And it was a fantastic occasion. And I've got to say, while it was in some ways like a Denmark home game, Germany were fantastically supported too. And their fans gave them a fantastic reception afterwards they did a kind of lap of honor almost and I think it was a that kind of game early in a tournament I think is important the same as last night so I think it's a really nice tone the fact that there were also four different goal scorers says a lot about the German squad I think arguably if not the most talented U23 squad that there is right now. But also just to add to the point of how good Germany are and maybe perhaps why maybe people underestimated them.

They didn't really prep pre-Euros with, you know, these big games against Euro opposition, really. Because I think the coach wanted to kind of focus on team building and just getting the right mood within the squad. And when you look at the game and you see the team that finished off this match, every single player either plays for Wolfsburg or Bayern. So now you kind of understand the fact that most of these players have played together for years and years. And perhaps, you know, team building might have been the right call by the coach, you know, considering that most that mostly players play together anyway.

So I thought it was quite interesting to see Germany come into this, you know, really, really strong, really, really ready without the same preparation that most other nations had. So that I thought that was quite impressive. And perhaps that's the precedent of how well they're going to do this tournament now. It was the first ever Euros goal for Alex Popp, Karen. She missed 2013 and 17 because of injury. For anyone who doesn't quite know her influence, she's such a huge legend of the women's game. What more can you tell us about her

and how important is she for this Germany side? I think a lot of players know our positions there as Poppy. And I didn't realise that until you just told me that because I thought when she scored the goal she came on she was really emotional and she celebrated she kind of went down and kind of and the team kind of went straight to and I thought that's a bit because I've played against pop on known pop for for years and years and I thought now you told me that kind makes sense. But there was definitely emotion towards her goal and her celebration. And by the way, what a goal it was.

I clapped it and I thought, oh, I'm meant to be neutral. But just one thing on the German side, the one concern I had about them is we are, you know, Alex said they're the best on the 23 side. And I thought they've already got three yellow cards in that game. And the key player for me was Overdorf. and I thought she got a yellow card early on and I thought oh and I said to one of the former German players I know um Josie I said I'm a bit concerned that the yellow cards

might cost you moving on in the tournament you know your bit of naivety and then I just realised I've got Pop if Oberdorf and not available Pop can just slot in there and go here's the experience and I just think you're right I think both Nick and Alex have just said

how good and strong they are and the squad depth as well is pretty strong From now on on Guardian Women's Football Weekly Alexandra Pop will be known as Poppy just a note

for anyone coming back on the pod again she's Poppy as far as I'm concerned for anyone coming back on the pod again. She's Poppy as far as I'm concerned. Right, let's move on to Spain-Finland, shall we? Because this one kicked off with a little bit of a shock, Alex. Linda Salstrom scoring in the opening 50 seconds and we all thought we might have had an upset on our hands. Yeah, it wasn't expected at all.

I don't think anyone expected that. But look, it was a clearance from Mapilleon and first-time ball back from Finland, and the ball just landed right smack in the middle of Mapilleon and Irene Paredes. And you could say that they definitely weren't ready for that. You know, the Finnish player just kind of ran right through them. And I mean, you know, brilliant finish.

Sandra Panyos got fingertips to it, but the placement on that was nearly perfect. So credit to them. You kind of didn't know what was Pano's got fingertips to it but the placement on that was was nearly perfect so credit to them um you kind of didn't know what was going to happen next because Spain have a history of not being able to score goals when they need to so you kind of looked at that and you didn't really know whether Spain were going to be able to get back or at least get back quickly um the way they needed to after that early goal, mostly for morale and kind of confidence that they need. But I thought they did well. They got the job done.

But yeah, after that finish goal, you didn't know what to expect. And again, with Spain kind of being who they are, despite the players that they have, you know, the top players, sometimes mentally they can be a bit weak and they sometimes don't know how to get back what they need. And scoring goals is what they kind of lack sometimes despite everything. But yeah, they got it done. And, you know, credit to Finland for putting up, I thought, a decent fight. Listen, you're going to butcher me completely because obviously you have the most beautiful tones when you pronounce these names. I didn't even do GCSE Spanish, so bear with me.

Spain got back into the game. Three headed goals from Irina Paredes, Aitana Bonmartie, Lucia Garcia and a last minute penalty from Mariona Caldenti. Marks out of 10? You know what? Not bad. That was good. Okay, not bad. I'll take that. Headed goals aren't exactly what we kind of expect from Spain, but it does show, Nick, that they're not one-trick ponies, perhaps.

It does show that. And I was actually going to say something similar, that if there's any sort of disappointment for Finland, who admittedly didn't come in expecting too much, it would be that they conceded that way three times and then from the spot. But yeah, it does show that Spain, who've had their problems coming in for tournament,

we all know they've lost Pateas and that kind of thing. They're not one-trick ponies. They can mix things up. And the second goal, wasn't it, ahead of from Bonmartie, I thought was absolutely fantastic. A late in into the box and perfectly directed it the first goal was a lot of hunger I thought to get on to the end of that cross and be there first in a crowded box you know again maybe a bit of a cliche but that is what champions require if you're not going to

pick teams apart and through your flowing football, if you do have an early shock like they did, and Finland put together a couple of other nice moves at 1-0 as well, then sometimes you've got to do it another way. And they did it. And I'm expecting to see a lot more from Spain in this tournament.

I'm expecting to see maybe a bit more of the football that we know them for, but I felt that was the way to do it this time. And yeah, again, the second goal particularly I thought was a very good example of what they can do. We will talk about Alexia Puteas in a second, but Nick has his coat on. He's got his backpack on. He's ready to leg it out the door. So before he goes, Nick, I want to ask you, Spain face Germany on Tuesday night. Obviously might be the decider of the group.

Can you call it? It's going to be such a cracking game, isn't it? Again, maybe it's recency bias. Maybe it's immediacy bias from having been at the Germany game. But I was just so impressed with Germany. And I still think Spain need to dial it up a little bit, like we just said. So I am saying Germany and I'm very happy to have egg on my face in a few days time. But it's going to be a cracking game. I can't wait.

We shall find out whether we will be mopping up yolk from Nick Ames' face. Good luck getting more than one word answers from Erling Haaland. Thank you. I'm going to need it. Apologies for leaving a bit early. We will forgive you. This time only. Thank you very much, Nick Ames. Right, going back to

Alexia Puteas, Karen, obviously Spain's first match of the Euros without her. She looked pretty moody in that baseball cap in the stands. You would be, though, wouldn't you? If on the eve of a tournament you pick up an ACL injury and you're having to watch like that. Jorge Vilda replaced her with Irina Guerrero.

How did she get on? It's always going to be difficult coming in and taking effectively the position of the best player in the world and also how elect serious within the team I don't know about here from sponsors and people that I know that know her and quite well she's very well thought and well like within the dressing room so that's a really difficult one I saw what they did for her before the game and they presented her with a jersey, but you could clearly see she was gutted and rightly so, because I think it's every player's worst nightmare to get injured the night before.

And especially when you're Alexi Patea and you're the best player in the world and you're one of the favourites. But I must say they coped really well without Alexia. I think I was listening to some of the commentary and I have to agree with them. Sometimes when a big player or two players in this instance for Spain have gone missing, Hermoso as well have not gone missing,

have not been able to feature, unfortunately, other players have to step up. And I thought they did. And the one thing I would always say about Spain is, I've seen now they've gone through a resilient moment, a couple of resilient moments, losing your big players, but also going a goal down and how'd you bounce back and credit to them they bounced back really really well and I must say again it's what you expect from Spain I sat back and watched parts of this game not all of it because I went to the Germany

game and I clapped because if you want to watch a team play out from the back, if you want a team build up, wow, this is the team to watch. Yeah, Group B going to form as we thought so far. But obviously that could change because Spain-Germany is on Tuesday night. I'm going to decide who I want to win this game after England have played Norway and Dependent, who is then topping Group A. I think at this moment in time I would much rather England played Spain in the quarterfinals. So group B as I say going to form we will reflect on that massive game on next Friday's show but let's circle back to England's group because we haven't

chatted yet about the other match in the group which was Northern Ireland kicking off their first ever international tournament with a 4-1 defeat to Norway. I mean, it was a really fast start for the Norwegians. Goals from Frida Marnum and Julie Blackstad. They were 2-0 up within the first 15 minutes. And you just feared a little bit for Northern Ireland at that point, Karen. Yeah, you really did. You thought, oh, this could be really, this wasn't a nice watch. And all of a sudden at half-time, then you saw a real strong version. I thought, oh, here we go. We've had a go here. And I really was impressed with them. And I thought, you have to take in consideration the journey that they've been on, really. You know, you're playing against Hegerberg, Guru Raiten, Carolina Graham-Hanson, you know, Lyon, Chelsea, Barcelona.

The top teams in Europe really are full-time. You're looking at the Northern Ireland squad who have only been training full-time for a short period of time. And I think the manager alluded to that after the game, the growth of the team and where they've got to get to, where they've got to go. But I thought they'd put a better version of themselves second half. And that was belief and kind of going, you know what, we're going to have a go here. We're just going to go but I thought they'd put a better version themselves second half and that was belief and

kind of going you know what we're gonna have a go here we're just gonna go for it and um I thought it was a better version of them but it's difficult for them because you can't take out history you can't take out finance you can't take out support and like I said comparing it to the front line of of Norway and what they're up against you have to take that in consideration but it was it was a much better second half than them for sure. A quick word for Simone McGill Alex because obviously ruled out of the tournament herself with a knee injury obviously one of Northern Ireland's best players so a massive blow but another serious knee I mean we get this all the time don't we ACL injuries left right and centre but can we even stop it happening?

I know there's a lot of research going on in the background about how to prevent this and whether cycles are to blame for ACLs occurring as often as they are. But what can be done? Yeah, that's I mean, that's not a question for me to answer in terms of research. But I think sadly, you know, most of the time it is mainly down to just bad luck. I mean, you see Alexia Potea, she got injured in the last five minutes of training on the eve of the Euros. You know, you don't really write that.

She went the entire training session fine. I read that potentially her foot got stuck on the pitch and, you know, a twist and that's all you need. It was the same for for PSG's keeper in the women's champions league she was you know pedaling backwards for a save and her foot got stuck on the grass and that was that you know you can look at it in terms of you know your menstrual cycle and the elasticity of your ligaments and and all that stuff but at the end of the day you know the motion that you need to tear your ACL is just bad luck, whether it be impacts, you know, a twist, um,

there's, there's not much that you could do to kind of, you know, avoid a twist, for example. Um, there might be, um, you know, a method to kind of prevent that, but for now you, you kind of just have to hope for the best. Guru Wrighton, impressive as we knew she would be, Karen, but the Norway attack looking pretty terrifying and Ada Hegerberg not even on the score sheet. So, what are England going to have made of

Norway's opening game ahead of their big one on Monday? The thing is, I don't think the England side will be, because they know the players, do you know what I mean? They know they've played against Guru. I fancy, I think in the Champions Champions League sometimes you can defend really well against Caroline O'Granahan who for me is the real big threat in a 1v1 I think she really gets them going I think you just got to stay alert for Ada Hegerberg and I fancy Millie Bright I think

she's had a great season and I fancy her against her be a battle there's no question about it this is the game that we need to really step up on and this will be a big jump from the last game. That's not me being disrespectful to Austria, but they were brilliant. But you'd say for the attacking line

that Norway have got a stronger attacking line. So it'll be a big test for us, but it's one that we need. And if you want to win the Euros, you've got to play these types of players in opposition and deal with them. But I don't think we'll be too fearful. but what I would say is you mentioned earlier about history

in regards to the Netherlands and Sweden there might be a bit of history on this because of you know England beating Norway and probably at least two tournaments that I remember that we were a part of and obviously I think a little bit history might come into this one a little bit further along because it will now start to impact where the group finishes. So it'll be very, very interesting, actually. And I think England will have to improve. I don't think they played their best. And hearing Lucy Bronze and a few other players, they're fully aware of that.

But they need to be better. And if I look at the other teams, I have to admit the other teams are playing better than them. Seeing Germany live, you know, seeing even Denmark, seeing Spain, seeing Sweden, seeing the Netherlands last night. They're better at this moment. I know it's one game, but England do need to improve and step up. So what are your fixtures coming up, Karen? I'm going to Brighton later on. A day early?

Yeah, it's match day minus one, isn't it? Get match day minus one vibes. The one I obviously want, the England game, but I'm buzzing to see the Germany-Spain game because I think watching two very different styles would be really, really interesting and tactically to see how that kind of pans out. I'm really, really,

because a lot of the European teams are like similar, obviously. I think Alex Scott was speaking about last night that she thinks it's harder to win a Euros and a World Cup because everyone's really similar in their style. But this is quite a different one, I think. So I'm really intrigued. What about you, Alex? Yeah, tonight going to France, Italy, taking advantage.

I'm already here in Sheffield. I think that should be a decent match. And then, yeah, taking advantage. I'm already here in Sheffield. I think that should be a decent match. And then, yeah, heading, I'm going to skip the England-Norway match, sadly, staying around the Peak District instead. But I'm going to head down to Germany-Spain, obviously, on the Tuesday. I couldn't miss that.

I think that was one of the first tickets that I bought from this group stage, and really looking forward to that. Brilliant stuff. Karen, I shall see you at the Amex forward to that. Brilliant stuff. Karen, I shall see you at the Amex. Take care. Thank you. Thank you for having me on.

Alex, go rest your voice. Thank you. I'll try. I'm going to, from now on, recommend all panellists go on the Orange Walk whenever they possibly can. We'll be back on Tuesday

following England's crunch match against Norway in Group A as well as checking in on Northern Ireland and the first group games from Group D as well. The Guardians Women's Football Weekly is produced by Lucy Oliver and Jessie Parker-Humphreys with additional help from Silas Gray and George Cooper. Music composition was from Laura Iredale

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