Fair play, the better team won

Commiserations to England, but the better team won the Women’s World Cup final.

In my defence, having raised hopes of an England victory (see previous post), I did add this qualification:

They haven’t actually won the World Cup yet and Spain - who outplayed England for a large part of the Euro quarter final in Brighton last year - are extremely dangerous opponents.

Noting the country’s dominance at youth level in recent years, I also suggested that Spain ‘could prove me wrong’ and go on to win multiple tournaments, like the USA and Germany before them.

In the meantime it’s worth pointing out that the best women’s club side in Europe, by some distance, is currently Barcelona who have won the UEFA Women’s Champions League twice in the last three seasons, and were runners-up on the other occasion.

No English women’s team has won a European title since Arsenal in 2007, and only one has even reached a final. (In 2021 Chelsea lost 4-0 to Barcelona.)

I believe that around half the current Barcelona team represented Spain in the 2023 Women’s World Cup, with two (Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh) playing for England.

That, I think, demonstrates the current difference between Spain and England, so before armchair ’experts’ start criticising Serina Wiegman’s side, consider the context and congratulate England on not only reaching the final of two major tournaments in successive years, but actually winning one of them.

Not a bad achievement, and as my Glasgow born and bred wife said of the World Cup in Australia, “Scotland didn’t even qualify.”