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Spain beat England to claim FIFA WWC trophy

Maharazu Ahmed
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Spain beat England to claim FIFA WWC trophy

Spain denied England a first-ever Women’s World Cup crown with an historic victory in a nervy final at Stadium Australia on Sunday that was filled to the brim with quality, effort and controversy.

Sarina Wiegman opted to stick with an unchanged line-up for the game, giving Ella Toone the start in attacking midfield over Lauren James following her return from suspension.

Spain dropped Alexia Putellas for Salma Paralluelo following her super sub heroics in the previous rounds.

A nervy opening to the game broke out in the 15th minute with England’s Lauren Hemp hitting the crossbar after being teed up by Rachel Daly.

Spain responded immediately in an increasingly open game by finding Salma Parraluelo in the box on the counter. The Barcelona youngster missed her kick but Alba Redondo popped up at the far post to side-foot a shot straight at goalkeeper Mary Earps with most of the goalpost open for her to aim at.

The La Roja thuck in the winning goal on 29 minutes when Lucy Bronze was punished for losing the ball in the centre circle.

Teresa Abelleira superb crossfield ball found left-back Olga Carmona and the Spain captain controlled and drilled her shot past Earps into the far corner.

England struggled to respond and could have gone into score shit when Parraluelo spun and hit the outside of the post with the last shot of the first half.

Wiegman rolled the dice at the break with two changes, Lauren James and Chloe Kelly coming on in a switch to 4-2-3-1 with Daly and Alessia Russo departing.

England improved but were unable to test the goalkeeper before Earps was called into action from the penalty spot on the 70th minute after a long VAR check. Jenni Hermoso’s effort was saved by the goalkeeper.

In spite of several stoppages, including a long injury delay for Alex Greenwood, which led to 13 minutes of added time,  Spain expertly navigated the Lionesses’ efforts to lift their first-ever Women’s World Cup trophy.

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