by Asif Burhan

England 0-1 Spain

THE wait goes on for England to win the World Cup after the European champions lost only their second match in 39 under Sarina Wiegman on the biggest stage of all, going down 1-0 to Spain in their first Fifa Women’s World Cup final at Stadium Australia in Sydney.

Having overcome Spain last summer after extra time in Brighton during the Uefa Women’s Euro quarter-final, the match followed a similar pattern, with the Lionesses falling behind and generally coming off second best against the sinuous technique and passing of their opponents.

However, this time, England’s impact substitutes were unable to turn the match around.

Lauren James was brought on in the second half after serving her two-match suspension and forced the only meaningful save from Spanish goalkeeper Cata Coll as time, including 13 minutes of stoppage time, ran out for the Lionesses.

In a game in which Spain inevitably dominated possession, early chances came at both ends.

In the 16th minute, Lucy Bronze started the move down the right which led to Alessia Russo teeing up striker partner Lauren Hemp to curl a shot from the edge of the penalty area flush against the Spanish crossbar.

In the next minute, Jenni Hermoso found space on the Spanish left to cross in for an unmarked Salma Paralluelo who failed to make the necessary contact, Mary Earps shovelled away the follow-up from Alba Redondo.

Just short of the half-hour, Bronze made another burst forward from right back and was herded into traffic in the centre of the field.

She was dispossessed and Spain immediately swung the ball into the space she vacated.

Mariona slipped the ball forward to the overlapping left back Olga Carmona who struck a firm cross shot into the far corner past Earps.

Spain continued to have the edge, in first-half injury time, Ona Batlle slid the ball in from the right and Salma got ahead of Jess Carter to strike the outside of Earps’s left-hand post.

At half-time Wiegman rung the changes to her attack, bringing on Chloe Kelly and James but the flow of the game was still with Spain. Mariona tested Earps once more with a bouncing shot which the England goalkeeper pushed away for a corner.

Kelly then created England’s clearest chance swinging in a devilish right-wing cross which reached Hemp at the back post, the Manchester City forward failed to hit the target.

Midway through the second half, Keira Walsh was adjudged to have handled as Mariona burst into the penalty area once more. The penalty was awarded after a five-minute delay for a VAR check.

However, the goalkeeper nominated as the best in the world last year, Earps dived to her left to smother the shot by Spain’s all-time record goalscorer Jenni Hermoso.

Earps was later awarded with the Fifa Golden Glove given to the best goalkeeper at the tournament.

Struggling to make an impression in the game, Wiegman surprised many by taking off her central striker Alessia Russo at half-time and bringing on two wingers.

She explained afterwards “we wanted to press high, but they came out of the press all the time. We thought we wanted to go back to 4-3-3 and we wanted to keep Lauren Hemp in the centre also, with her speed. We had to take out one of the defenders, which was Rachel [Daly]. Those were the thoughts we had behind it. I think in the second half we played better.

“We started playing the long ball too often,” she admitted. “At moments you have to play the long ball, there are also moments you have to play the possession game and we didn’t take enough initiative I think.”

Asked what she said to her players in the post-match huddle after losing her second consecutive World Cup final as a coach, Wiegman revealed that she told them: “We did everything, we gave everything, we’ve overcome lots of challenges. It feels very bad of course, but I’m still very proud of the team.”    

On the new world champions, Wiegman admitted they were worthy winners. “They are absolutely the team with the best possession game. We knew that ahead of the tournament. To be really honest, I think they deserved their win … If we could have got that goal, it could have been gone different. We got very close.”