END OF THE WORLD
England 0 Spain 1: Brave Lionesses heartbroken as they lose Women’s World Cup final despite Mary Earps’ penalty heroics
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AFTER THE ECSTASY, the agony.
Just 385 days before, the Lionesses were crowned queens of Europe on home soil.
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But Sarina Wiegman’s team were left down and out Down Under as their bid for world domination fell short at the final hurdle.
And they could have no complaints, beaten by the better team as Spain wrote their own remarkable story.
While 12 rebel senior players sat watching thousands of miles away back home, head coach Jorge Vilda achieved the ultimate vindication of his reign.
Whatever the ongoing divisions in Vilda’s young squad, the players were united on the pitch.
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Captain Olga Carmona’s excellent first-half goal was enough to deliver Spain’s first major women’s trophy.
England goalkeeper Mary Earps kept her team in it by saving a second-half penalty from Jennifer Hermoso.
Yet even with 13 minutes of stoppage time to play with, the Lionesses did not look like finding an equaliser.
The margins that decided the game were fine, as you would expect in a final.
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But in truth, Spain were a class apart.
In the quarter final of the Euros, they had also been the better team for much of the game. But Ella Toone’s late equaliser and Georgia Stanway’s extra-time thunderbolt sent them home.
This time, Toone, Stanway and Walsh found themselves over-run in midfield and there was to be no late redemption.
Not for the team nor for Lauren James, who was sent on at half time after returning from a two-match suspension for her quarter-final red card.
England will look back on Lauren Hemp hitting the crossbar early on, and some other half-chances created by their pace and physicality.
Football-wise, though, they were second best and so failed to complete what would have been a truly global conquest.
No English team, male or female, had ever won a major tournament on foreign soil.
And Wiegman’s side came closer than any after achieving every type of victory over opponents from every continent.
Haiti, from the CONCACAF confederation, and Asia’s China, were beaten in the group stage.
England defied James’ red card to grind out a win on penalties over African side Nigeria in the last 16.
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They came from behind to beat South America’s Colombia in the quarter finals, then produced their best performance of the tournament to defeat Antipodean hosts Australia in the last four.
But for all the emergence of new nations at this tournament, the ovreall powerbase in women’s football has moved across the Atlantic from America to Europe.
And a Spain squad packed with players from the European club champions, Barcelona, was just too good for England.
Would it have been different if three of the Lionesses’ Euro heroes had been fit? Captain Leah Williamson, Golden Boot winner Beth Mead and playmaker Fran Kirby missed the whole competition through injury.
But of the 15 Spanish players who announced a boycott of the national team last September in protest, only three came to the World Cup.
Spain’s Under-20 team became world champions last year and their greater strength in depth as a nation was clear.
Vilda’s side had slightly the better of the opening period before the game burst into life after 15 minutes.
Rachel Daly teed up Hemp, whose shot beat goalkeeper Cata Coll but not the crossbar. Moments later at the other end, Salma Paralluelo should have connected with a cross and when she didn’t, Alba Redondo put her shot where Earps could save it, rather than into the gaping net.
The contrast of styles was clear. England’s more direct approach, hitting runners in the channels and using a high press to force turnovers, was creating openings.
Spain were enjoying plenty of possession and plenty of joy down the flanks, but without testing Earps enough.
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Until Lucy Bronze went on a proper Aussie walkabout and her team paid the price.
The Barcelona right-back lost the ball after drifting into midfield and two passes later, Carmona was running into the space where Bronze should have been. Any striker would have been proud of the left back’s finish, which nestled in the side netting.
The goal knocked the stuffing out of England. They managed another couple of breaks but the half ended with Paralluelo grazing the post.
Wiegman had seen enough.
Off came Alessia Russo and Daly, and out went the 3-5-2 formation that had worked so well since the emphatic group stage win over China.
And into the action arrived Euros matchwinner Chloe Kelly and James.
It was the latter’s chance to remarkable redemption, after her silly stamp and sending off in had left her country on the ropes in the last 16 clash with Nigeria,
But it was Spain who looked the more likely to score. Earps did well to keep out a deflected Mariona Caldentey shot, then watched Aitana Bonmati’s story go just over the bar.
Paralluelo had another effort diverted wide, but Walsh had handled in the build-up.
Referee Tori Penso was called to the monitor and the inevitable followed.
Earps dived low to her left to save and hold Hermoso’s spotkick, so it was still there for England, if they could just create a clear-cut chance.
James wriggled free but Coll dealt well with her shot from a narrow angle.
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The Spanish goalkeeper was not really tested again. In time added mainly for an injury to Alex Greenwood, it was Spain who threatened to make the scoreline reflect their superiority.
But the trophy was the only reward that mattered.
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