The Finland coach, Anna Signeul, had warned that Spain have a lot of Alexia Putellases in their team, which might have been pushing it, but they can certainly play. Cruelly denied the chance to grace this stage by a torn cruciate ligament suffered 48 hours before it all began, the world’s best footballer sat in the stands, crutches at her side, and watched her teammates give a demonstration of their art with a 4-1 victory over Siegneul’s side in Milton Keynes. “Fantastic,” Finland’s coach called them after, and rightly so.
Spain needed a comeback, sure, but there can be no doubting their quality. A first minute goal scored by Linda Sallstrom which might have prompted a collapse, yet another thing going wrong, was instead overturned without hurry, their way, via almost 700 passes and 32 attempts on goal, the last of them in added time finally giving a more faithful reflection of this match. “We have shown who we are and what we came here for,” Aitana Bonmatí said.
