Spain thrashed England 4-0 to move a step closer to automatic qualification for next year’s Women’s World Cup finals, with Germany booking its spot , thanks to a comfortable 2-0 home win over Norway in the penultimate round of European qualifiers on Friday.
With the top teams from each of the four A groups qualifying automatically, Germany’s win gave it an unassailable four-point lead over Norway in Group A4 with one game left, while Spain and England are both locked on 12 points at the top of Group A3.
England’s hopes of securing a spot with a win in Mallorca were quickly snuffed out, with Patri Guijarro giving the Spaniards the lead in the 19th minute and Alexia Putellas making it 2-0 before the break.
There appeared to be nothing England could do to stop the Spanish juggernaut, with Putellas adding a second goal 10 minutes after the break and Claudio Pina putting the icing on the cake with a goal from a superb pass by Aitana Bonmati to make it 4-0.
England retains a chance of qualifying directly but it will have to get a better result, when it hosts Ukraine next Tuesday, than Spain manages in its final fixture away to Iceland.
There was late drama in Group A2 as Ireland’s Amber Barrett netted a 90th-minute goal to snatch a 3-2 home win over the Netherlands to move above the Dutch and into second place in the group, one point behind leader France, which beat Poland 2-0.
The Irish play France in their final game in Grenoble, with the Dutch taking on Poland at home.
Earlier, Pernille Harder came off the bench and scored the winner for Denmark as it downed neighbour Sweden 2-1 to end the Swedes’ hopes of direct qualification.
The Danes top Group A1 on 11 points ahead of their final game against bottom side Serbia, while second-placed Italy, which is three points behind the leader, next hosts Sweden.
Published on Jun 06, 2026