The 2023 Women’s FIFA World Cup has finally concluded with the Spanish Women’s National Football team winning the coveted title by defeating England in the finals of the tournament at Sydney. Both teams had a dream run through the tournament with Spain beating Sweden and England beating Australia in their respective semifinal matches on the road to the finals.
It was Spain’s Olga Carmona who scored the only goal of the match in the first half to help her team walk away with a valiant 1-0 victory against the Brits at the Stadium Australia. Both teams came into the final full of confidence, having improved their performances throughout the tournament.
England, who played in front of a sold-out Wembley crowd last summer to win the Euros final, started brightly, testing Spain’s defense with balls over the top and in behind. However, it was Olga Carmona who got the breakthrough for Spain as she scored the opening goal of the match in the 29th minute following a crisp assist by Caldentey Oliver.
Spain dominated majority of the game, exposing the spaces left by England’s attacking full-backs, and took their chance when Bronze cut inside from the right and gave the ball away when she was stopped by a wall of red in the center circle. They intelligently switched play to their left and Carmona ran on to a simple pass from Mariona Caldentey before stroking the ball low past a diving Earps.
Earps was brilliant throughout the match, thwarting several Spanish attempts to extend the lead The English keeper blocked shots from Ona Batlle, Caldentey, and Alba Redondo in each half – while Salma Paralluelo’s first-time strike brushed the post on the stroke of half-time.
The final moments of the match were filled with a flurry of mixed emotions from both sides as England’s players fell to their knees in tears at the final whistle as Spain celebrated inside their penalty area after dealing with a final corner kick in the 14th minute of nerve-wracking stoppage time.
England manager Sarina Wiegman, who has been a sensational lead for the team, tried to pull out every best move in her arsenal to turn the tables, including the introduction of Lauren James and Chloe Kelly at half-time, but it was not enough as Spain maintained control thwarting every promising effort made by the English team to avoid the defeat.
English goalkeeper Mary Earps stepped up to collect the ‘Golden Glove’ award for the best goalkeeper of the tournament, having made several stunning saves, none better than from the penalty spot to deny Jenni Hermoso in the second half.
The save by Earps is now being seen as the best of the entire tournament who moved early to her left and caught Hermoso’s effort, the penalty having been awarded for handball against midfielder Keira Walsh following a lengthy video assistant referee review.
While this is Spain’s first-ever World Cup title victory, it also turned out to be England’s second successive loss at the World Cup finals, who had their hopes high having won the last year’s edition of the European Championship.
