I don’t see any way Spain doesn’t beat England, and beat England handily tonight. The Spanish team is like having six or seven Caitlyn Clarks on one team; if you watch this collection of all their goals in the tournament, the first thing that strikes you is how well the team plays together, passes, and moves without the ball. The second thing is the way that most of their goals aren’t the usual garbage-style goals that rely more upon the limitations of the defenders and the goalie than the skills of the attackers to go in the net.
Esther is an instinctive goalscorer who is a total predator in the box. Athenea is an aggressive attacking winger with crazy-good ball skills who doesn’t hesitate to take on multiple defenders. Vicky not only controls her side down the wing, but constantly sends in excellent crosses. Pina can score from outside the box. And despite being a team without much height, they’re really good in the air, Paredes in particular. I love the way the Spanish women repeatedly attack over the top of the defense as soon as they cross the midfield line; it’s a tactic that probably wouldn’t work in the men’s game, but when you’ve got midfielders and defenders who can reliably hit their targets 30 meters away, it’s a devastating one in the women’s game.
The other thing that is remarkable about the compilation is the way that they didn’t even need their best player, Aitana Bonmati, to score until the semifinal game against Germany. And her assist against the Swiss was a work of art.
England has proved incredibly resilient, coming back from behind to win at the end twice in the tournament, but I don’t think they’re going to come back against this much offensive firepower.