The Guardian's Women's Football Weekly - Spain edge Germany to set up Euro 2025 final with England – Women’s Football Weekly

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

Faye Carruthers is joined by Tom Garry, Alex Ibaceta and Chris Paouros to discuss Spain’s dramatic semi-final win over Germany and look ahead to Sunday’s showdown with the Lionesses

This is The Guardian. Hello, I'm Faker Rothers and welcome to The Guardian Women's Football Weekly. So the gold and the Toblerone will meet in Basel after Spain saw off Germany to book a place in the Euro 2025 final where they'll face England. It was the world champion's first ever win over Germany and who else but Aitana Bonmati to score the decider in extra time. This tournament just keeps serving up more and more drama and more and more late nights.

And now we have a rematch of the World Cup final. We'll review last night's semi-final, plus we'll take your questions. And that's today's Guardian Women's Football Weekly. Tom Gary, who's rubbing his eyes immediately. I feel like we literally need like sleep updates from everybody in the pod this tournament with these ridiculous extra time late nights Sending us all slightly delirious. How are you? I'm doing very well

I'll be doing a lot better if teams could win matches in 90 minutes, but that's okay. We forgive them They're entertaining us in many different ways and the tournament serving up some really compelling drama. So Yeah, we go we go again one more we're nearly we're nearly there and I think we're all all tired. And it can't be that late then that's why the first thing I said to my husband this morning I think I'm gonna go to bed before midnight for the next few days because the final is a 5 p.m. yay! Alex Ibaseta I bet you didn't care what time it finished what drama how are you? Good, tired as well yeah it's just quite demanding when the when the maths go to extra time especially if you're working

them like it's just like you have everything ready in the 90 minutes and it goes into 30 minutes of extra time you're just like really you're making me work 30 more minutes and that's it but it is true what's on so you know it's entertaining and we're here for that so we're catching up on our sleep these next few days. Chris Powros are you entertained? How could I not be entertained Faye and I've been going back and forth these last couple of games and getting the early flight out of wherever. So going to bed at 2 or 3 o'clock and then getting up at 5 to go to the airport, I'm just getting a bit old for it frankly. Yeah, I was going to say, I mean that is literally living on fumes. I get upset if I don't get, you know, eight hours normally. I've been getting five and a half to six but I know that you guys have been getting more like three to four which is just

utterly, utterly brutal. However, Tom has cheese to get him through. Tom, I have an email for you from Raphael. This is for Tom. I hope you're doing well, not having too much cheese. I always giggle when I hear if you're experimenting with rich winter food in the middle of a heatwave. Fondue and raclette will wait until November as far as I'm concerned. By the way, I almost laughed out loud when listening to Tom describe his disappointing experiment in St. Gallen. Flammacooka is actually originally from Alsace, I don't know if that's the right pronunciation, in France, my brother-in-law is from Strasbourg and I think he'd die on the spot if he was told that Flemmecooker

is one, Swiss, and two, glorified pizza. How do you respond? I stand corrected and gladly advised of the real culinary reasons behind it. I actually, I had another phlegm cooker since we recorded the pod after the St. Gallen and I would say that the experience was significantly better. So maybe I just had a bad sampling. Is that right? Have I redeemed myself? Are you just reining yourself back in again so you don't upset the Swiss for the last five days of your tour? Maybe. We want to make it out with friends, don't we?

We certainly do. Spain have many friends and many admirers and they've reached the final of the European Championship for the first time after edging out Germany in the second semi-final to set up another showdown with England. It finished Germany 0, Spain 1 after extra time thanks to a goal in the 113th minute from Aitana Bonmatie. Tom, it was a competitive encounter, a significant achievement for Spain. What did you make of the game? Yeah, actually the celebrations from Spain perhaps reminded a lot of us that this was their first European final. I think perhaps because they've been so good to watch for so many years now, maybe it's easy to forget that they've still got relatively few finals

historically. So it was a really tight, good semi-final, very competitive. I thought Germany played the game really well tactically to try and hold Spain as much as possible. Probably did as well as you could really expect anyone to do like in a tactical sense against this really good Spain team. Germany defended well. They had the most number of jewels won, you know, 68 to 52 in Germany's favor. They battled really well. They won the most tackles. They actually had some

quite good chances to score that I think they'll maybe really be frustrated they didn't take. But overall, Spain with a better team, technically they're the best team in the tournament. And I'm quite glad as a neutral that they're in the final because that final is the two fantastic, fantastic teams. And I'm really pleased that Bonmatty scored the winning goal because we all know what a difficult start to the tournament she had and this story now to go from a hospital bed to scoring this winner in the semi-final to take Spain to Basel is quite the movie script. So what a player and bring on Sunday. Yeah, we'll talk about Aitana Bomati in a second. But overall, Alex, your team are through.

And if you look at the data, Spain out-possessed and out-created Germany across the pitch. 67% possession, 22 shots on target, 626 accurate passes. Obviously the stats kind of tell one part of the story, but it wasn't easy for them as Tom said. Did you always think that they'd find a way or were you starting to prepare yourself for a shootout? It's definitely an interesting one because obviously I think every single team that Spain have played so far this tournament have not changed a tactic. The tactics are the same. It's a low deep block. You're very very compact, closing down the spaces in the midfields. You're closing down passing lanes. I mean Spain it's not that hard to

figure them out. They go from centre backs to midfield to width to back to the centre. It's kind of the general notion of how the ball kind of moves along the pitch. So if you close down those passing lanes, if you close down those spaces, if you leave Alex Soporti, Asnari Belvumati with no midfield spaces where they usually operate, you do frustrate Spain. But we've seen them, the tournament, outscore what it is as well blocks, but historically as well, those low blocks have always been the crypt tonight, you know, they've been forced to make different decisions to find different paths of the ball.

And you saw it a lot, especially I think Padre Jarros wanted to say for this with Alexia and Idan being dropped deeper into Italy's half and closing down spaces, it was Barclay who had to kind of step up into the spaces and dominate the ball and dominate passing. But yeah, like it was tense. I think Germany was a team that Spain came up against that had probably the most clear chances to be able to get something out of their counterattacks and small chances in the opportunities that they got. We had Katagoi make that last minute save in normal time from that rebound. Karabu had that free kick that could have easily gone in and bounced under Katagoi. Germany were a team that I actually held my breath every time they attacked. With the likes of Pärnöbull, Lea Schiller, those are quality

players that can finish the game, that do have cold blood when they're up against Katagoi 1v1. This was probably the most nerve-racking match from a of from a Spain's perspective but Spain played well, you know, you said it there, they dominated the match so you knew it was coming but you know, it is football and anything could happen at any moment. It is football and it is the Euro 2025 tournament where it feels anything can happen but ultimately we have the two teams in the final that we all predicted but we've got to talk about Aitana Bonmatie because she very rarely fails to deliver anyway Chris but Exactly as Tom said she started the tournament being hospitalized with a bout of viral meningitis

I don't think any of us expected to see her until the latter stages of the tournament at most You know here we are three weeks later. she's sending her team into the final. I mean it's easy to say but I mean what a player. She's an absolute delight to watch and just at that moment when you think if this is going to go to penalties, is anyone going to score a penalty? That's what I was thinking, it's like what are we going to see again? And then you've just got Bon Matty Bon Mattying. Do you know what I mean? It's just like, you know, just letting that, just letting the ball run as well. It reminded me of, you know, old days of our grassroots Sunday league football where the coach would say, let the ball do the work. And that we

thought that was because we were all a bit shit, excuse my language. And so it's better to let the ball do the work. But you just, it was just beautiful to watch. Yeah, I mean, arguably she beat Anne Katrin Berger at the near post. And, you know, after like the, yeah, her heroics, Anne Katrin Berger, that is throughout the tournament, you know, I felt a bit sorry for her at that moment. But as I say, it's just Bon Matty, Bon Mattying, sorry, excuse the London accent of Bourn Matty, Alex, my apologies. And I just think, you know, it was just, it was classy. It was just classy. And I also really liked at the end, I don't know if you caught it, and it's interesting watching on TV, because I've been watching a lot of the games in the stadia, to watch her going to talk to all the opposition players at the final

whistle, to just think it's really classy. Lucy Brons always does it as well, I notice. And there's just something about that. And it's not in a, you know, you can sort of see it's not in a patronising way. It's just to kind of understand kind of, you know, what the battlefield has been like. I've been huge props to her. Obviously, I hope she has a terrible game on Sunday and some form and all of those things. But yeah, what a player, what a player. Yeah let's focus a little bit more on Germany for the moment Tom. 10 days or so ago they looked like a completely different outfit I think we'd all written them off hadn't we when they were torn apart by Sweden. They were slated

in the press back home for their inability to defend I mean partly because they've barely got any defenders left. They had their backs against the wall for this game and the 120 minutes against France in the quarterfinal as well. No fit defenders on the bench, but somehow they've managed to prove the naysayers wrong. And as Alex said, you know, they were actually, you know, the team that were getting you sitting, sitting up on the edge of your seat. Yeah, they can go home with their heads held very, very high. I think that we can't underestimate what the impact of playing those 120 minutes against France, almost all of them with 10 players must have done from a physical exhaustion point of view and how well they've recovered to compete so

competitively against Spain in that semi-final. I thought that Anne Katrinberger had another really good game for the vast majority of the game. Clearly she'll be disappointed with the winning goals we've beaten at your near post as any goalkeeper would be from a positioning point of view. But we do also need to sort of shout out how well she played for the normal 90 minutes and of course how wonderful she was in the semi-final, in the quarter-final. I think there's a lot of hope and optimism now around this Germany team for the next sort of probably three tournaments that they could, it could be really strong now. There's a, there's a lot of things that are promising about the way they played under

Christian Wuch, for example. But I, I just think that they are, as with so many teams, there's a gap in technical skill to Spain that it was quite evident. We've thrown pros at Bonmatie, understandably, but I want to shout about Patrykvi, because she had more than 100 passes completed last night. And just to give you an example, no German player had more than 40 and that was Anne Kutchenberger. So, you know, she's got three times more than any outfield German player. She's played more progressive passes than anyone else, 21, and she's created seven shots. So for one player to do that in a major semifinal, she really stood out for me.

And at the moment, for the time being, Germany haven't really got a player of that, that highlight of that level of the Patelibon Mati. They haven't got a massive, massive superstar who, you know, we will talk about for Ballon d'Or. They've got some very, very good players, but they should hopefully come away from this campaign going into the World Cup and the next Euros with a huge amount of confidence with the fact that they, the improvements they've made from the last World Cup are vast. So, a good campaign from them and they were nearly there. Nearly. Yeah. I mean, the retirement of Alexandra Popp, they definitely miss having a striker,

without a doubt. They just had no end product, really. They did manage to exploit the Spanish defense at times with speedy transitions and Clara Ball, I think, it was the epitome of that. But was their game plan, Alex, because it could have panned out very differently, was their game plan a blueprint of how you can try and get at Spain? I'm trying to get you to give us some positives for England on Sunday. Yeah, I literally like every single team that Spain have played have done the same exact thing and it is a blueprint because, you know, and I think it's quite interesting because England will probably be the first team who doesn't play like that. When you look at all the formations coming up against Spain, most of them are a back five. As much as Serena likes to throw curveballs once in a while, I don't think she's going

to make her team play in a back five, much less be scared, sort of, Spain. I think the finals actually be quite different to what the rest of the games that's been up played this tournament. England opened up a lot more, but obviously they see a bit more fruits because they are attacking a lot more than sitting defensively. Switzerland barely attacked. Belgium was the team that impressed the most because you look at them and the quality isn't as high as that of Germany, of England for example, or even Italy. But they still got a few goals in, but that meant that they exposed themselves out in the back, which meant that Spain scored the amount of goals that they scored. So there's no really

getting around it. If you expose yourself, Spain will score. It's just what they do. It's what they're doing. It's the players that are able to do it. I think what's important to know also is that key players are doing really, really well. Claudia Pina for starters is absolutely amazing down the wing, finding the space at the top of the box. Again, Padre Higaro. I think that she's, you know, we talk about Itana Alexia quite naturally because both of them are having good tournaments, but we're kind of used to that by now. Let's move on to the next midfielder and it's Patria Hado because when she plays well, the entire team plays well, the entire team works, so it's going to be interesting because England aren't going to play down

to kind of, you know, sitting back, compact defensive line, they're going to open themselves up, which means that they can score and they definitely have the quality to score, especially look at the defensive weaknesses that Spain have. We've talked about it, the slow pace in the center back positions. You have Alessio Russo who's easily able to run in between the two center backs to get the first touch into space and get yourself in a 1v1 with the keeper. The wingers go up in what is on about here. And Oricon Monar, they like to play quite attractive. So you have the likes of Lauren Hank, Chloe

Kelly being able to run into those bases as well. So it's going to be a really good game. I think for once it's not going to be us watching Spain repetitively try to score for the entire 90 minutes. So it's going to be interesting. But yeah, I think everybody knows what Spain doesn't like, but at the end, you know, they've managed to win every single match with every single team that's played like that. Yeah. Yeah. And I wonder whether actually England will be quite, you know, pleased in lots of ways because I don't think they'll have, they've done particularly well against the combative players and teams this season and that's what they would have got from from Germany. Tom and Chris have both mentioned Anne Katrinberger and it was kind of a tale of two keepers in many ways, two contrasting fortunes as well but I have to say the commentary

line of the night to close out the first half of extra time from friend of the pod Robin Cowan was it's burger time. I mean it was but perhaps not quite in the way that she thought. I did message her with some clapping emojis and she replied saying she was delirious at that point but look you know we've said it already and Katrin Burger should have done better for the goal, stepped up immediately to apologize which is a mark of the player but Christian Vuk said she didn't have to do that she made so many wonderful saves that got us to where we are there's no blame we're very proud of the team I mean it is just

that tough life of being a keeper Chris you end up being hero or villain don't you and you can make all the stops but one mistake and it's and it's all over yeah and I think that's very much the position right it's like and that's why keepers are a slightly different breed to everybody else, because you have to have a different mentality, you know, because you can do, like, you know, Alex mentioned it, Katakoi did, barely did anything, but had to pull out an incredible stop just before the end of normal time. And Anne Katrinberger has had an exceptional tournament. I keep watching that save and I'm not necessarily a fan of watching saves but it was unbelievable

what she did in the quarterfinal. A scoop. A scoop, exactly. It's like save of the tournament, I think it's one of the best saves I've ever seen across football. And so, you know, Christopher Fouca is exactly right. It's like they wouldn't have been there if it hadn't been for her. And, you know, one mistake and then that's that. And you can be exposed across the pitch in any other way. But as a goalkeeper, it's,

you know, the spotlight is on you. But that's what makes goalkeepers goalkeepers. And to be honest, the other thing that always gets me about goalkeepers is you are volunteering for people to fire footballs at you at a really hard pace. So you've got to have a different mentality to everybody else. So you know, fair play to her, she had a great tournament and that was just a sort of a slightly sad way to end it for her really. Yeah, Katakoi was actually named by Suzie, Tom and Marva in our predictions as the player to be receiving the golden glove and that world-class double save to keep out Germany late on was incredible. But she gets criticised actually for her shot stopping. But she didn't really have to face that many. So I think that's probably part of the reason why. But she really

stepped up when her side needed her Tom. Yeah. And also, I know you're saying she didn't have to make many saves, but she was quite commanding, like aerially as well, I thought, in the box last night. And I know that we went with that prediction probably because we thought that Spain were going to have the most clean sheets overall, not necessarily specifically because of her and it does tend to go to the team, the goalkeeper of the team that ultimately wins. So, but actually she has had a really good tournament and when called upon and when needed. So I think we are often forgetting again, how, because of the players are so wonderful on the ball in midfield, we forget just how good the rest of the Spain team also is away from your Aitanas and your Alexias and so on and so on. And I think the save that was, I'm going to forget the exact minute now that

it was, but essentially right at the end, and in fact, she made two really strong saves, but the one save we're all thinking about right in the top corner, up to high to her left was probably the second best save of the tournament. If we think about the Kajunberger save against France being the best save at the tournament, this is probably the next one behind it. I thought it was a really important save and you could see the reaction from all the Spain teammates all going sort of rushing straight to her, giving a huge pat on the back. They knew how important that was. And we cannot underestimate how strong the whole team is. There's no weak link really in the Barcelona team from 1 to 11. All of

them top class. That was another example of it. Yeah, it was. A lesson in patience maybe for Spain. Alex, how much have they developed that side of their game over the last 12 months and learnt not to get frustrated when things aren't quite clicking for them? Yeah, I think this tournament has been a changing point, I think for a lot of reasons and I think that mentality and consistency has been kind of one of the main things that Spain has been able to grow. We saw them in the last Euro, three years ago and their mentality was weak. We saw them, you know, it wasn't down to them. It was down, you know, Alex, people, they asked that injured record for the tournament.

Jorge Villa didn't really know what to do with the team. And there was a lot of confusion. There was a lot of uncertainty and a lot of positions and it wasn't down to them. But essentially now you look at them and they don't rely on kind of anyone external except themselves. When it comes to picking themselves up, to figuring stuff out on the pitch, to motivating that you can tell that there's a togetherness.

And I think there's key things that have lifted them up. You have a player like Apnea del Castillo. She's a player that's always been quite inconsistent, I think. And she comes from a club that they're not really good togetherness. They don't have a good mentality. So you put her in a squad on the national team. She's always been quite independent and you come into this tournament and she's absolutely conforming.

I think that's down to everyone being on the same page, supporting each other and playing good football. I think the progression, the biggest change that's been I've had over the last year, the last couple years, has been the mentality to kind of figure out things on the pitch, but figure them out together. There's no individual player. It's always kind of been the divide between Barcelona players and everyone else. That's been quite a clear line a lot of the time historically. But now, you know, that division is there anymore. They're all together. They're all fighting for the same thing. Their mentality is there. They're able to resolve things on the pitch. I think in a more practical matter, especially when you're playing against

teams that literally cut down your planning, you know, what it can be. Before, you know, they weren't a team that were capable of figuring that out on the pitch. They put their head down, they would be notably frustrated. You saw them yesterday, they were frustrated by the 15th minute, the way that Germany was playing, but that didn't mean that they put their head down. That literally just fired them up. They kept pushing, they kept being consistent. So I think when you look at Spain, I think mentally, for so many different reasons, whether it be football or outside of football, mentally they're the strongest that they've ever been.

Yeah, you can tell that for sure. They're also as strong as England are in terms of their depth. We've talked a lot this tournament about what Serena Vigman has to bring off the bench, but it's the same with Spain, Chris. Athenia came off the bench, made an impact again. Her cutting pass was the one that led to the goal. Salma also had an impact, as Alex said earlier. And when you look at who they're coming up against in the final, how important is that going to be?

Because we've seen that that is what has pushed England over the line, is those impact substitutes. This is going to be an interesting tactical battle from that perspective for both managers, I feel. Absolutely. And I think we've seen it in the knockout stages as well, that things are happening towards the end of the game, right? Whether it's in injury time or the end, you know, sort of towards the ends of the game. And so, and that's when your subs really matter.

And you know, it really shows you what a squad game is. You know, you really don't think about what that first 11 is, because when you think about who the sort of, the players have been in this tournament, whether it's been for England or for Spain, it's not necessarily the starting 11 that spring to mind automatically. You know, exactly what you just said about Athenia last night, about Michel Adjimang the night before,

you know, this isn't just like, I was sub coming on to try and see what's happening. It's like, you know, very much how the game is being managed. So, you know, it's going to be very interesting to see on Sunday what sort of plays out. I guess it depends what happens in the first 60 minutes, right? 60-65 minutes. But sorry for the clichés, but it is a squad game, particularly in a tournament where the games are coming thick and fast, and you've really got to manage your rest and recovery and all the rest of it. You've got to build between games and ensure that everyone's ready. So I think it's going to be really interesting for sure. Yeah it's gonna be fascinating. Right that's it for part one. In part two we're gonna look a little bit more broadly at where this leaves both teams going forward.

Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. So let's pick up where we left off. Seems a little bit crazy that this is actually the first time Spain have ever reached a European Championship final, Tom. Does that kind of hammer home how meteoric their rise has been since 2022, especially when we consider all the stuff the players have had to deal with in that time. Yeah, absolutely. It probably hammers home how well Spanish women's football has done over like a 10-year period, particularly if you think about players that have also brought through the success at youth international level, like the success of success is under 17 and under 19 tournaments and how well they have started to train players and develop players to place with such style and, and sort of wonderful skill and flair and panache and all those sorts of

things that we admire that sort of been deep rooted in the way they've tried to grow the sport rapidly. And so this kind of domination of being like World Cup finalists and now European finalists back to back has been coming for a little while. And I think we, my gut feeling is we probably will see England and Spain and France and Germany, those four particularly like continuing to kind of dominate in that sense. Because if you look at the way that the youth teams are playing, for example, which I know producer Sophie has covered in a lot more detail, but there is a trend that you would expect those four to

probably carry on. And Spain have had to endure so much stuff that frankly, they shouldn't even have to be talking about. So this team have shown mental strength, like we can't believe, right? You know, think about all the, all of the off pitch stuff they had to cope with after winning the world cup and sort of how that moment was kind of stolen away from them. I dare for that reason, if you take away my Englishness, it would be really nice for them to win on Sunday and have the moment of celebration untarnished that they truly deserve. Like that kind of, and the kind of the 48 hours of pure joy afterwards that all we're talking about is how well they play and how wonderful their achievement was.

That would be really nice for this group to have. And I kind of hope that they have that. Are they going to win? I think it's going to be incredibly close, this final. Like for all we've kind of maybe criticized the way England have played sometimes, it's still the two teams in the tournament with the highest levels of average possession together. They both made the final. You've got a team in England who actually were well beaten by Spain in June in Barcelona, but were winning the game before both teams made lots of substitutions and England brought on a lot of younger players and wrote and experimented at the back a little bit. I mean, Missy Bocahens came in and played

her debut in midfield, you know, up against players like Pina and Bonmatty. When it was the two starting 11s England were winning the game, being outplayed but winning the game and tactically it's going to be so fascinating and Serena Vigman will have had a plan for this game for ever since the World Cup final. They will have been looking at this tactically, going through with the staff, how can they do this, how can they take on Spain and I think, on my gut feeling is it's going to be really, really close on Sunday. I agree with you. I'm so excited about the final. I just want to go back to your point about what happened in 2023 and the Luis Rubiales kiss, subsequent trial and conviction for sexual

assault, which unbelievably was still only in February. It's taken, you know, almost two years for that to come to pass. But what changes have we seen since then, Chris? I think what sort of struck me is they didn't just win the World Cup and move on. They used that moment to demand change and just sort of building a little bit on what Alex said earlier, 81 of them refused call-ups after that. And they said, we're not going to play until this is fixed. And I think that's a really important thing to remember because it wasn't that long ago.

And, you know, and it forced the federation to act, you know, Ville de Wijn, Montse Tome came in, first woman to manage Spain, which is exciting, I think. You know, the other shout out that you've got two women managers in the final. And actually, you know, there are more women, I think, managing teams in this tournament than there have been before but it was still nine teams coached by men and seven coached by women so it's great to see two women coaches in the final. And sort of back to Spain standards around their staff, their medical support, their travel, their accommodation all had to be modernized and so you know and they've also rebuilt the culture inside the squad you know we've talked about Bob Matty and Alexis Muteas, they've backed the younger players coming through. You know, Alex said it, Spain used to be fractured along club

lines. Now you've got player leadership groups, they've set their own standards, they're holding each other accountable. They've created a culture where the players lead as much as the coach does. And you can see it in terms of how they carry themselves. I mean, as I say, Alex was talking about this earlier, and they're not waiting for permission to set the tone. They are owning it, and the coach is working with them rather than against them. And so this is what's made this sort of run their first Euros final, et cetera, in my mind, so significant, because it's not just Spain sort of being technically brilliant,

it's showing what happens when the players take ownership of their environment, what happens after something as heinous as all that stuff with Rubiales and all the stuff that we'd heard with Jorge Vilda, proving what happens when players have got agency in a voice and it can transform the team and the federation. So huge props to them you know as Tom said if they weren't playing England in the final I'm not sure exactly you said this Tom but I'm gonna paraphrase if they weren't playing England in the final you'd be like right behind them but they are so you know having said all of that I still hope they lose. Yeah I mean we are seeing change it's interesting because Montserrat Tome doesn't have everybody's support necessarily because of what

happened previously. But whatever happens on Sunday, these Spanish players have performed yet again on the biggest stage, Alex. But what does it look like back home? Because we know all about Barcelona, but Aitana Bonmatis spoken about her disappointment at the lack of progress domestically since the World Cup win. There's obviously been so much going on behind the scenes, but do you think that's going to start to happen now? Yeah, it's definitely, it's a big, big debate, I think domestically. But the positive side is that, you know, for much that the conversation didn't have to happen around Corviales and

everything, because it was such domestic news in Spain, these players that are household names for something that you can get out of such a bad experience in such a bad situation is now that people that never really heard of Julian Walsh or Alex Poblet or anybody else before, or the Spain national team and how successful they are, now they know. Because of everything that happens, there's a lot more people that right now know that Spain are in a Euros final. The viewing figures on television have been outstanding. I think it was the quarterfinals that was the most seen sporting

event this year on what would be the BBC of Spain, essentially, open TV, where they've been putting everything. And even everything that the Spain team is doing is despite all the little to no support that everything has. Even know, even, you know, the television, you're playing a semi-final and the build up to it is only 15 minutes long. And that includes all the publicity and the ads that they have to put in before they put in the football match. So, you know, even television-wise, they're breaking records and they're breaking numbers. But even at that, personally, for me, it's not good enough, the coverage that they're getting. But even at that, people are finding out, people are wanting to watch. There's a lot of media noise in terms of there's a lot of new media coming in,

interviewing players that have never really paid attention to the women's game. But it is true, you have the national team, you have the players, know, Barcelona performing on a European level. But when you look at the domestic league, when you look at Ligue 1, you know, there's still an entity and a... I don't... The thing is that you don't want to generalize it because there are people, you know, working in there, you know, the president or the doctor of renovation now, you know, she means well, but the people that work in the Gallifet, they don't have a lot of ambition. When you look at the clubs that they have and look at the players that they have, when you look at capitalizing on key moments to be able to progress and give resources, they're

not an ambitious league and they are kind of satisfied with the minimum of not having to do that much to be able to progress in football because the likes of Barcelona, the likes of the national team, the likes of Real Madrid are doing it for them. So it is kind of a concept battle. You have such quality players and we've talked about the depth of Spain and that has to do a lot with younger players. But now you're seeing it more and more. A lot of the younger players are leaving Spain to play in the WSL and the NWSL in Mexico because their domestic league doesn't really provide that for them.

If you're not playing for Barcelona or Real Madrid or even Atletico Madrid, what can you get from the league that's going to make you progress because the league is an ambitious in that sense. So domestically, there is so much left to do. Let's wrap up on Germany, Tom, because Christian Wuchside are at a very different stage of their journey. He took over the reins, you'll remember, after their bronze medal win at last summer's Olympics. And there has been significant regeneration with the likes of youngster Franziska Kett and Carlotta Vamsa experiencing their first major tournament.

Is there plenty to be positive about despite the defeat last night? Oh, 100 percent. No shame in losing Spain narrowly after extra time. And I think that they have shown not just in this tournament, but over the last sort of nine months, maybe even the last year, that they can play some really effective football, a really good counter-attacking side. And I like the, if we think back, for example, to the way they played against England at Wembley in the autumn, when they sort of tore England apart, we know the potential is there for the future. So I think they should be very positive. They're

bidding to host this competition in four years time and probably will have a really strong chance of that because of the size of the stadiums that they're proposing to play in. And I do think their future is strong. Kind of going back to what we said before, I just think they are maybe one or two really world-class players away from being a winning side. And there are also probably vulnerabilities that were exposed by Sweden as well that we shouldn't forget. But we are in a position now, Faye, where the gap between the teams is so small relatively, like particularly the kind of six or seven teams who are in their own kind of leading category, it's really fine margins, they

can all beat each other. So we're in a really good place for not just for Germany, but for so many other countries to make the Euros in 2029 extremely competitive, I think, and Germany are one of those. Good quick maths done there. 2029 feels like forever away. I could see your cogs turning. I nearly forgot what it was. Just finally, Chris, we are going to preview the final in full in another episode this week, but just some quick thoughts on it. England, Spain once again, we did all predict it. Finally, the Guardian Women's Football Weekly predictions start to we did all predict it. Finally, the Guardian Women's Football Weekly predictions start to

come to fruit, but it just felt like they were destined to meet at this point, didn't it? Absolutely. And what I'm actually hoping for is chaos. Open, attacking football, sparks of brilliance, a few mistakes, you know, all of those things rather than something sort of cautious and, you know, which you're not expecting, but I mean, who knows? So let's hope for a really, really good game, lots of goals. It will end up being 1-1 and, you know, it will go to penalties or something, right? Sure. But I want lots of goals, open attacking football and, you know, and the saviour of the nation to come through. If you'd have seen Tom Gary's face when you said chaos his eyebrows reached the ceiling I think he's fed up with chaotic matches and rewriting frantically last-minute copy. I have to say I'm you know this is I I'm not in Switzerland and I'm used to being sat behind the goal

working on radio and a last-minute goal in any circumstance just sent like I've got wires everywhere so I'm plugged into a live unit and you're packed up ready to dive into the tunnel to get there for the flash interviews and then all of a sudden you know a Chloe Kelly and Ollie Watkins whoever goes and scores a late goal and you frantically have to plug everything back in or run back from the tunnel back to pitch side for knockout football and extra time it's stressful really stressful right we've received a few emails so just want to read a couple of them out this is from Jim hello All after Italy embraced the dark arts once they had the lead by wasting

time and buying free kicks. Isn't it pleasing that England's equalizer came deep into stoppage time and the winner came from a soft penalty. Oh Jim. Yes, it is a little bit. This one from Ian. Hello, Faye, Susie, Sophie and guests. I finally understand the true meaning of guilty pleasure. Such immense pleasure in seeing England in their third consecutive tournament final. But oh, the guilt of seeing Sweden and Italy lose those games like that. Take care and let's hope our luck doesn't run out before Sunday.

Contrasting emotions there and fingers crossed, sorry Alex, that our luck doesn't run out before Sunday. But Alex, it's been so lovely seeing you. Good luck, genuinely, on Sunday. I really hope it's a spectacle. Lovely to see you. Thank you for having me on. Great for the better of us all on our sanity. It's done in 90 minutes. Fingers crossed. Chris, we're hoping your prediction is inaccurate. Enjoy the final. I'm going to do my best. Nice to see you all. I'm sure you will. Tom Gary, you are so nearly there. A few more days, some phlegm cooker,

some cheese, and you're on the home straight. Can't wait, mate. This is what we live for. These finals, this is going to be so good. Honestly, like it's the perfect finale. Two great teams and it's a lovely city, Basel. I can't wait. We'll chat soon. Yes, very much looking forward to it. We're actually going to be back on Friday to preview the final between England and Spain. So join us then. Keep having your say by sending in your questions via social media or emailing us at women'sfootballweekly at theguardian.com. As ever, a reminder as well to sign up for our bi-weekly women's football newsletter. All you need to do is search Moving the Goalposts sign up. The Guardian Women's Football Weekly is produced by Sophie Downey and Silas Gray. Music composition was

by Laura Iredale. Our executive producer is Salamat.