‘History again’ – Aitana Bonmati celebrates as Spain set up Women’s Euro 2025 final against England
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Spain's Aitana Bonmati celebrates scoring the winning goal in extra time.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
- Aitana Bonmati's extra-time goal secured Spain's 1-0 victory over Germany in the Euro semi-final, sending them to their first final.
- Spain dominated possession, but Germany's strong defence forced extra time after Klara Buehl threatened on the counter-attack.
- Bonmati expressed pride in the win, while goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger took responsibility for Germany's defeat.
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ZURICH – Spain star Aitana Bonmati said her team planned to take some time to celebrate reaching their maiden Women’s European Championship final following the July 23 extra-time win over Germany, before quickly turning their thoughts to another title decider against England.
“We have made history again, beating Germany for the first time and reaching a Euro final, which we had never done before,” a smiling Bonmati remarked after her late strike secured a 1-0 victory in Zurich in the Euro 2025 semi-final clash at Stadion Letzigrund.
“We feel proud to be part of this generation of players that is achieving so much, but this is not over yet,” added the reigning Ballon d’Or Feminin winner, before the Spain squad headed back to their training base in Lausanne, on the shores of Lake Geneva.
“They are already tearing things up in the dressing room and there won’t be much silence on the bus journey back to Lausanne. We will enjoy this but tomorrow we need to start thinking about England.”
Their latest victory was Spain’s 10th in a row and 13th in 14 games, their only loss a 1-0 defeat by England in the Nations League in February.
The game on July 27 in Basel against the reigning European champions will be a rematch of the 2023 World Cup final in Sydney, when Olga Carmona scored the only goal to hand Spain the title.
England will have had an extra 24 hours to prepare for the match after beating Italy in their semi-final on July 22, although they also needed extra time to win that match, having already been taken all the way to penalties against Sweden in the quarter-finals.
“I know they played twice 120 minutes but we knew today could be a long match and it was,” said Bonmati, who was in hospital with viral meningitis days before Euro 2025 kicked off, in English.
She knows that England’s substitutes – notably Chloe Kelly and Michelle Agyemang – have had a major impact in each of their knockout ties en route to the final, but insists Spain can trust in their own squad.
“We believe in our players, the 11 starters, but we also have a lot of players on the bench who can do better in the second half or in extra time. We have a big squad and we trust all of them,” she added.
“England have a lot of players that we have faced a lot of times – we know them and they know us, so we have to prepare the best way we can to win.”
Meanwhile, Germany’s players and coach Christian Wuck said their team would continue to develop and come back stronger after the painful defeat.
“I am proud of the team, and yes, we will continue from here,” he said. “It was another setback, but I believe we can build on that and we will now try to carry that on in the Nations League.”
Germany had exceeded expectations by holding out against the world champions for so long, Wuck added. Defender Rebecca Knaak said the performance showed her team were on the right track.
“We also showed today that we could play with a bit more courage, even against Spain,” she said.
“We showed what we could do against world-class players. I’m so proud of the girls.” AFP, REUTERS
