Just a year ago, neither Spain nor France knew what it was like to play in the final of a major tournament. Today, the Spanish team is the current world champion, has the ticket to its first Olympic Games in its pocket and is 90 minutes away from being declared the first winner of the Women’s Nations League. The road has been long, and full of stones, but these soccer players are willing to continue making history. They never tire of breaking down walls and the next objective is to beat France, one of the few teams they have never managed to beat, neither in an official match nor in friendlies. Their paths have not crossed for a long time. From their last confrontation five years ago, in a friendly prior to the World Cup in France that would end 2-0 for the galas. In an official match, their last precedent is in the group stage of the 2013 Swedish Euro Cup, with a defeat thanks to a goal from Wendie Renard.
The captain is the great absence of the French team in this Final Four of the Nations League, out due to a muscle injury. Without her, the veterans Eugénie Le Sommer and Amandine Henry are the leaders of this dressing room that has goalscorers such as Marie-Antoinette Katoto, Kadidiatou Diani and Grace Geyoro.
It will be the first final in a major tournament for France, which in the last four World Cups has not made it past the quarterfinals. “It is a page in the history of French women’s football that is opening,” confessed Hervé Renard after qualifying for the final. The furthest they had gone so far was at Euro 2022, when they were close to reaching the final, but Germany ended their dreams by defeating them (2-1) in the semifinals. Last Friday, the French took revenge by leaving the Germans out of the Nations League final. Her next challenge is to finish off the current world champion. An “unstoppable team,” Renard recognized in the preview.
Since the French coach came to the bench things have improved in a team that had gone through internal problems under the leadership of Corinne Diacre. Before the World Cup, heavyweights in the locker room like Renard, Katoto and Diani resigned from the national team due to disagreements with the then coach. They demanded improvements and their federation listened to them and ended up dismissing Diacre and appointing Hervé Renard as her successor. “Spain was deservedly world champion. “They are the ones who played the most beautiful football,” praised the coach in the preview, highlighting that the Spanish team “scores a lot of goals, but also concedes them.” “Aitana is a remarkable player but above all she is a team,” said Renard.
In the Spanish ranks it remains to be revealed which will be the two discards of Montse Tomé for the grand final. Logic dictates that they will be the same as in the semifinals, Tere Abelleira and Alexia Putellas, who have not yet received the medical discharge, but the Asturian will play the game of confusion and will not publicly give the final list until today, speeding up the deadline for the UEFA, which allows the registration of the list until 11:59 p.m. the day before the match.
Today, in La Cartuja they also hope to achieve a historic milestone in the stands. If against the Netherlands the Sevillian stadium registered a record number of spectators (21,856 fans), despite the last minute change of venue, for the final against France on Monday afternoon the 29,000 tickets issued had already been exceeded, so everything indicates that a new attendance record will be broken in a national team match on Spanish territory.
