Having reached their first World Cup final, the Lionesses were defeated 1-0 by Spain to just miss out on being crowned World Champions. Jacob Whitehead of The Athletic reviews the match.
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00:00 On a bright Sunday morning in August, England women had the chance to make history.
00:04 The Lionesses would step out into their first Women's World Cup final,
00:08 and the first World Cup final by any England first team since 1966.
00:12 All around the country, crowds gathered in front of big screens and televisions.
00:17 In the first half, both sides had chances.
00:19 England's Lauren Hemp hitting the bar and Ella Toon just missing her shot,
00:23 but it was Spain who took the lead through Olga Carmona,
00:26 much to the dismay of the watching crowd.
00:29 Serena Vigeman brought on Lauren James and Chloe Kelly at the interval,
00:34 in the hope of turning things around.
00:36 And despite some near moments and a brilliantly saved penalty from Mary Earps
00:42 to deny Spain a second, the Lionesses never quite came close enough to scoring.
00:47 In the dying moments, Earps was sent up for a corner, but it came to nothing.
00:51 The Athletics' Jacob Whitehead, who covered much of the tournament in Australia,
00:56 gave me his thoughts.
00:58 You could probably say they had two games where they played really well,
01:03 which were the China game, their final group game,
01:06 and the Australia game in the semi-final.
01:08 And the rest of it, they were kind of very much a team working things out.
01:12 Obviously, they did have a few injuries going into the tournament,
01:15 some key injuries as well.
01:17 You look at Leah Williamson, Beth Mead, Fran Kirby.
01:19 Before a ball was kicked, truly that impacted them in terms of their confidence
01:25 a little bit, knowing that these players were not going to be available for them.
01:29 Yeah, I mean, how many teams enter a tournament without their captain,
01:33 their playmaker, and a player who won Player of the Tournament
01:36 at a previous major tournament?
01:39 After Kiera Walsh looked as if she was going to be injured,
01:42 after the Denmark game, they were also sort of losing their midfield pivot as well.
01:47 To kind of battle through that is really impressive.
01:51 On the day yesterday, though, you mentioned that Spain did play very well.
01:54 They passed the ball around. They had a lot of possession.
01:57 England never quite clicked, I felt, in the final.
02:00 What was your perspective of it?
02:02 In the first half, they were probably tactically out for it.
02:05 There's a lot of space in the flanks, which meant that Jess Carter kind of
02:08 had to push out to cover those wide spaces, which left loads of spaces
02:12 for the likes of Bonmati to come through the middle.
02:15 Veedman made that big gamble at half-time, adjusting the formation,
02:19 returning back to England's original formation.
02:21 And I do actually think that was more successful.
02:24 Chloe Kelly was getting some dangerous balls in.
02:26 If this final were to be replayed tomorrow, would Serena Veedman
02:29 actually have started, Lauren James, given how good of a tournament
02:32 she'd had up until that point?
02:34 Now, of course, she is one of England's most talented players,
02:36 and we've seen how much she changed the tournament when she came
02:39 into the team for the second match.
02:41 But I'm not actually sure if Veedman would regret not starting her.
02:46 England, therefore, miss out on a second major international trophy
02:49 in just two years.
02:51 As for Spain, having won their first World Cup knockout match
02:54 just several weeks ago and reaching their first final,
02:56 they are on top of the world, emulating their male counterpart of 2010.
03:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]