From Sydney to Basel with two years and, for those who took in both Euro 2025 semi-finals, several lifetimes in between. Spain will be England\u2019s opponents in the decider on Sunday, ensuring a delicious rerun of the World Cup final, but that barely tells the story of a tie with a resolution arriving only seven minutes from the end of extra time.<\/p>\n
The scorer simply had to be Aitana Bonmat\u00ed, whose meningitis infection last month cast a severe cloud over Spain\u2019s preparations. They will now play to win their first European Championship title but it was impossible not to sympathise with an excellent Germany side and, particularly, their goalkeeper, Ann-Katrin Berger.<\/p>\n
She had been immaculate until Bonmat\u00ed, slipped in towards the right byline by Athenea del Castillo, let fly from a tight angle and beat her inside the near post. Germany had come agonisingly close to victory themselves and sank to the floor in deflation at the end.<\/p>\n
With its oval curves and all-encompassing athletics track this venue lacks the acoustic force that propelled England and Italy on Tuesday night. The stakes here were no lower, though, and the context a novelty. It has taken a colossal stretch, down the years, for Germany to be cast as plucky underdogs but they could make that case here. Christian W\u00fcck\u2019s weakened team spluttered through the group stage but located staggering depths of resolve in edging past France<\/a> despite being a player short for 107 minutes.<\/p>\n They would be required to \u201csuffer\u201d to stand any chance of going one better, according to W\u00fcck. That was hardly rocket science: Spain\u2019s football has been several levels above the rest in a tournament high on drama but variable on technical quality. The world champions had barely been scratched in progressing this far, a shade of doubt perhaps offering itself in the time it took to puncture a resilient Switzerland<\/a> in their quarter\u2011final on Friday.<\/p>\n Klara B\u00fchl drags a shot wide for Germany. Photograph: Matthew Childs\/Reuters<\/p>\n The Germany captain, Giulia Gwinn, a high-profile absentee since sustaining a competition\u2011ending knee injury against Poland, was again named among the substitutes and watched in full kit. She had no chance of taking active part but perhaps a 12th player would do no harm. In the event those on the pitch started brightly and should have been rewarded. The winger Klara B\u00fchl had already caused flutters before, in the eighth minute, running clear down the inside-left channel from a long pass from Berger. Opportunity begged but, with Catalina Coll to beat, B\u00fchl dragged her finish across goal.<\/p>\n On the quarter-hour B\u00fchl had another shot blocked. Germany were putting the yards in for W\u00fcck, breaking quickly and denying Spain any semblance of rhythm. When Esther Gonz\u00e1lez found a half-space in the box, a heavy touch saw her surrounded and the chance extinguished. She was booked for stopping the resulting counter but soon became involved more constructively. A snap shot from 15 yards forced Berger, hero of the quarter\u2011final, to tip over acrobatically; Spain, crowded out until then, had finally showed up.<\/p>\n They came again, Berger gobbling up before Cl\u00e0udia Pina could exploit an inventive free-kick routine. But it was Giovanna Hoffmann, the Germany centre-forward, who had more to rue when air-kicking from a superb position on the half-hour. Jule Brand had forced the opportunity with tricky work on the right; for all their uncertainties, Germany were posing plenty of the questions.<\/p>\n In outmuscling Olga Carmona before she could enter the Germany box, Carlotta Wamser offered an accurate precis of events. Spain\u2019s threat is never fully dulled, though, and they turned the screw towards half-time.<\/p>\n First Irene Paredes met a Pina corner and only Berger\u2019s right post kept the score level, the keeper rooted as the ball rebounded out. Then Berger was forced to deny Gonz\u00e1lez and Pina, both of whom had run in behind, in quick succession and Germany were relieved to cling on.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Moving the Goalposts<\/p>\n No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women\u2019s football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Aitana Bonmat\u00ed squeezes her shot past Ann-Katrin Berger at her near post. Photograph: Piroschka Van De Wouw\/Reuters<\/p>\n This had been bright, intelligent fare: a notch superior to almost everything served up the previous night. Germany needed to retain a threat after the interval while bolting the door against opponents who could scent blood. Their support screamed for handball when another B\u00fchl effort struck Paredes; there was no genuine case and they had better cause to be exercised when Berger took a hefty blow after another timely stop at Ona Batlle\u2019s marauding feet.<\/p>\n Berger got up, which felt crucial given Spain had already scored nine second-half goals this summer. In the 58th minute she was thankful to a block from Sophia Kleinherne, who diverted the previously quiet Bonmat\u00ed\u2019s shot wide after Spain\u2019s most incisive move of the game.<\/p>\n Nonetheless it was hardly as if Germany found themselves relentlessly pegged back. B\u00fchl threatened yet again, Coll repelling her low drive. \u201cS\u00ed se puede\u201d (\u201cYes we can\u201d) rang out from the contingent behind Berger\u2019s goal, but as the minutes ticked down it was far from certain that Spain actually would.<\/p>\n Montse Tom\u00e9 rolled the dice, replacing Gonz\u00e1lez and Pina. Germany looked tired but it was only a remarkable double save from Coll, who denied B\u00fchl and Wamser in rapid succession, that thwarted them at the end of normal time. Bonmat\u00ed would inflict the cruellest of blows with penalties looming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Sydney to Basel with two years and, for those who took in both Euro 2025 semi-finals, several…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-286245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114904754023468668","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}