SPAIN star Aitana Bonmati said her team planned to take some time to celebrate reaching their first ever European Championship final following Wednesday’s extra-time win over Germany, before quickly turning their thoughts to another title decider against England.
“We have made history again, beating Germany for the first time and reaching a Euro final which we had never done before,“ a smiling Bonmati remarked after her extra-time strike secured a 1-0 victory in Zurich in the semi-final clash.
“We feel proud to be part of this generation of players that is achieving so much, but this is not over yet,“ added the reigning Ballon d’Or winner before the Spain squad headed back to their training base in Lausanne, on the shores of Lake Geneva.
“They are already tearing things up in the dressing room and there won’t be much silence on the bus journey back to Lausanne.
“We will enjoy this but tomorrow we need to start thinking about England.”
The game on Sunday in Basel against the reigning European champions will be a rematch of the 2023 World Cup final, when Olga Carmona scored the only goal to hand Spain the title.
England will have had an extra 24 hours to prepare for the match after beating Italy in their semi-final on Tuesday, although they needed extra time to win that match having been taken all the way to penalties against Sweden in the quarter-finals.
“I know they played twice 120 minutes but we knew today could be a long match and it was,“ Bonmati said, in English.
She knows that England’s substitutes — notably Chloe Kelly and Michelle Agyemang — have had a major impact in each of their knockout ties en route to the final, but insists Spain can trust in their own squad.
“We believe in our players, the 11 starters, but we also have a lot of players on the bench who can do better in the second half or in extra time. We have a big squad and we trust all of them,“ she said.
“England have a lot of players that we have faced a lot of times — we know them and they know us so we have to prepare the best way we can to win.” – AFP
