Spain's Bonmati keen to add Euro crown to glittering medal haul

New Straits Times

16 hours ago

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND: Aitana Bonmati is hoping to add another piece of silverware to her bulging trophy cabinet when Spain play their first Women's Euro final, taking on holders England in Basel on Sunday.
The 27-year-old playmaker has won six league titles and three Champions League crowns with Barcelona and taken home the Ballon d-Or Feminin in 2023 and 2024, as well as a World Cup and Nations League title with Spain.
"It would close the circle a little bit – this, together with the Olympic Games," she told reporters at the team's base in Lausanne on Friday.
"We want to add the only tournaments that we are missing. For me personally, it would be very nice in the future to have the memory of having won the great tournaments at the highest level in football."
Spain's best finish to date in the Euros came in 1997 when they came third, and their only appearance in the Olympic tournament led to an agonising fourth-place finish at the Paris Games in 2024, where they lost the bronze-medal match to Germany.
Sunday's final – a repeat of the 2023 World Cup final – promises to be a tight affair, with six of the last seven games between the two sides decided by a single goal and the seventh a scoreless draw.
"The game on Sunday is unique, very one-on-one, where things are decided by the smallest margins. Anything can happen, no matter how experienced or knowledgeable you are," Bonmati explained.
"They have it too, they have lived through many finals. It is going to be a very equal match in that respect."
Bonmati and her teammates are very conscious of where the game will be won and lost.
"When we talk about our game, we talk about a possession game, and we, in the vast majority of games, have had possession. So if we don't have it, something bad will happen, so I hope we have it more than England," she said.