A tense game in Zurich on Wednesday was ticking down towards penalties, when reigning Ballon d\u2019Or Bonmati struck in the 113th minute, surprising the usually reliable German goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger at her near post.<\/p>\n
It was not one of Barcelona star Bonmati\u2019s most influential performances, yet she still delivered when it mattered to keep Spain on course to win their first European Championship crown.<\/p>\n
They were also grateful to goalkeeper Cata Coll for some vital interventions, including a spectacular double save to deny Klara Buhl and Carlotta Wamser right at the end of normal time, as Germany were agonisingly eliminated.<\/p>\n
![\"Football](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2025-07-23T212329Z_39365084_UP1EL7N1NF4XB_RTRMADP_3_SOCCER-EURO-GER-ESP-1753306178.jpg\")
Spain\u2019s Aitana Bonmati scores their first goal [Matthew Childs\/Reuters]<\/p>\n
Spain will now face reigning European champions England<\/a> on Sunday in Basel, in what will be a repeat of the 2023 World Cup decider, when La Roja triumphed 1-0<\/a> in Sydney.<\/p>\n If Montse Tome\u2019s side come out on top again, they will become the first nation to hold both the world and European titles at the same time since Germany, almost 15 years ago.<\/p>\n Spain had never beaten Germany before, and now, they advance to their first-ever Euro final, with the chance to cement their status as the leading force in international women\u2019s football.<\/p>\n They should have been the fresher of the two sides here, having played their quarterfinal against hosts Switzerland a day before Germany got the better of France on penalties, after playing almost the whole game with 10 players.<\/p>\n Germany were also missing three of their starters from that match, with Kathrin Hendrich and Sjoeke Nusken suspended and right-back Sarai Linder injured.<\/p>\n Christian Wuck\u2019s team did unsurprisingly have the majority of the 22,432 crowd behind them at Zurich\u2019s Letzigrund Stadium, and they had Berger in goal.<\/p>\n A star of the win over France, she made a fine save to keep out a shot from Spain\u2019s Esther Gonzalez \u2013 her teammate at Gotham FC in the United States \u2013 just before the midway point in the first half, tipping the ball over for a corner.<\/p>\n Spain captain Irene Paredes headed against the post from a Claudia Pina corner, and Gonzalez was again denied by Berger before half-time.<\/p>\n It was then Germany\u2019s turn to have the best chances in the second half, but Coll made a crucial block from Buhl just after the hour mark, and the Bayern Munich player also curled a free kick just wide late on.<\/p>\n Then came the stunning double save from Coll right at the end of the allotted four minutes of injury time, as the Barcelona goalkeeper kept out a deflected Buhl shot that was looping in and quickly got up to stop Wamser\u2019s follow-up.<\/p>\n That was perhaps a sign that it would not be Germany\u2019s night. They then saw defender Sophia Kleinherne come off in tears early in extra time after overstretching while trying to stop Salma Paralluelo going clean through on goal.<\/p>\n Spain\u2019s winner arrived in the 113th minute, as Bonmati let a ball from Athenea del Castillo run past her in the area before beating Berger at the goalkeeper\u2019s near post with a shot from a tight angle.<\/p>\n There was still time for Coll to excel again, flying to her left to save from Lea Schuller as Spain held on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aitana Bonmati\u2019s strike in extra time downs Germany to send Spain into Women\u2019s Euro 2025 final against England.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,94,1824,12,104,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-286420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-germany","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-spain","14":"tag-sport"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114905119964476202","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286420","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=286420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Germany](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/AP25204699287862-1753299174.jpg\")
Germany goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger saves a shot from Spain\u2019s Esther Gonzalez during the Women\u2019s Euro 2025 semifinals [Alessandra Tarantino\/AP]<\/p>\n