Latest news with #Aitana Bonmati
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
How to watch England vs Spain: TV channel and live stream for Euro 2025 final today
Sarina Wiegman's Lionesses are one win away from becoming the first England side to retain a major title, but will face their toughest challenge of the summer in tonight's final. They will go toe to toe with world champions Spain with the trophy on the line. England go into the match as underdogs after coming from behind to win in both the quarter-final and semi-final, both of which required extra time. They will be boosted in the final, though, by the return of Lauren James, fit again after suffering an ankle issue in the semi-final. Spain had a considerably tougher route to the final, facing Switzerland and Germany in their knockout matches. Aitana Bonmati scored the only goal as La Roja edged past Die Mannschaft in the semi-final, just weeks after being hospitalised with meningitis. She will be one to watch in the final, as will Barcelona's Alexia Putellas, widely regarded as one of the greatest women's footballers of all time. Previewing the match, England captain Leah Williamson admitted the Lionesses would need to be at their best: 'Every team is hard to beat and every team poses a different threat and challenge, and we have to stay in it for as long as possible until we can take advantage of it.' Where to watch England vs Spain TV channel: In the UK, the game will be televised live for free on both BBC One and ITV1. Coverage will start on both channels at 4pm BST ahead of the 5pm kick-off. Live stream: BBC iPlayer and ITVX will each offer a live stream service. Live blog: You can also follow all the action on matchday via Standard Sport's live blog!
CNA
6 days ago
- Sport
- CNA
Women's Euro exit shows once-mighty Germany battling to keep pace
A courageous German performance in their 1-0 Women's Euro semi-final defeat by world champions Spain means they leave Switzerland with heads high, but the once-dominant team need to find a cutting attacking edge to keep up with the best. Spain playmaker Aitana Bonmati proved to be the difference, conjuring up a superb winner in extra time. Though Christian Wueck's young side performed well on the night, they lacked a truly world-class attacking talent to turn a game in their favour at such a high level. "We have to evolve, we have to improve, we had phases of ball possession today that we simply did not exploit well, and those are areas where we need to improve, especially in the youth system, so that we can develop well-trained players for the Bundesliga," Wueck told reporters. "Also (we need to) perform better in those phases of ball possession that were not well-executed today, especially at that level. That is part of being a top team, and of course we are still lacking in comparison to Spain and England." Spain face England in Sunday's final. Eight-time champions Germany have not won the tournament since 2013 in Stockholm, and in the meantime they have been reined in and passed by as other countries pour money into the development of the women's game. The 2013 victory was built on the back of the stunning goalkeeping of Nadine Angerer, who saved two penalties in the final against Norway, and the 2025 squad looked to have a similar net-minding talisman in the shape of Ann-Katrin Berger, who pulled off a miraculous save in their quarter-final against France to prevent an own goal. Berger followed that up with a stellar performance in the penalty shootout win over the French that followed, but on Wednesday she was caught out by Bonmati's lightning shot from a tight angle to her uncovered near post that ended up as the only goal of the game. Though Berger took the blame for the defeat, it was not solely hers to bear. Germany had plenty of chances, with Klara Buehl superb down the left, but they lacked the killer instinct in front of goal that Bonmati displayed. All in all, the Germans displayed plenty of promise as they beat Poland, Denmark and the French in Switzerland, with the only blemish a shock 4-1 defeat by Sweden in which they had a player sent off in the first half. Though some of his choices have been questioned, Wueck says his focus on young players is paying off. "I recently read that the (German Football Association) DFB is miles behind the top nations, and three days later I read that we are in the semi-finals. So maybe the Germans need to learn a little bit that we do everything together, that we want the best for the German nation," he said.
The Independent
6 days ago
- Sport
- The Independent
Spain illustrate their genius to set up Euro 2025 final showdown with England
If it was anyone else in the world, you might wonder whether she really meant it. If it was anyone else in the world, though, Spain probably wouldn't have even been in that position to score. As it is, the world champions are in their first ever women's European Championship final, thanks to the genius of Aitana Bonmati. It wasn't just about the ingenuity, but the intelligence. Aitaina later said that Spain had been studying Ann-Katrin Berger's movements and how the goalkeeper stepped away from her near post. The playmaker put it exactly where she needed for a 1-0 win over resolute Germany, exactly when it was needed - minutes from the end of extra-time. So, England face up to a repeat of the 2023 final, from a moment that no other player could possibly hope to repeat. Or maybe even imagine. Even before Aitana drilled the ball inside Berger's near post, there was the mercurial quality of the turn. You could actually say Germany had due warning, even if it's almost impossible to predict what a player as good as this will do. Aitana had nevertheless foreshadowed it with the assist for the crucial goal against Switzerland in the quarter-final. She had let the ball roll through her legs to flick it in for Athenea del Castillo. Here, Aitana turned and went on and helped herself. England are going to have to watch for that, except you never know when it's coming. That's the joy of a player like this. Just look at Berger, and the symbolism of beating the best goalkeeper of the tournament so far. The German had stopped everything up to then, a series of shots on target. For this match-winner, she couldn't even see it coming. Berger even pointed to her right, just before Aitana shot to her left. Maybe the biggest giveaway before Aitana's own words was that she never even looked for a runner. She knew what to do. She also did it when it mattered most. How Spain needed it. Berger's commanding performance had played into a growing Spanish frustration, where a visible angst was undercutting their play. They weren't pressing with the same intensity or anywhere near as high up the pitch. They weren't even passing the ball with the same vigour. Fortified by Berger, the Germans looked so assured in defence. All of Carlota Wamser, Janina Minge and Rebecca Knaak stood up so well, among others. It looked and felt like a slow descent to penalties, which might literally have played into Berger's hands. Only deepening the potential psychological angst of that, there was the fact that Spain had never beaten Germany. Ever. You could sense that being a factor as the game wore on, not to mention Spain's comparatively poor knock-out record. It remains a remarkable thing to say about world champions, but this was only their sixth ever victory outside a group stage. They began to make some strange decisions in those stretched final stages of the 90, and then extra-time. That extended to the substitutions, and particularly the removal of Claudia Pina, or the choice of Salma Paralluelo over Vicky Lopez. Except, in some ways, such debatable flaws only further emphasise Spain's strength. Even if they haven't got the right mix, or the formation doesn't quite work, they just have so many different players that can hurt you. And at the centre of it is always Aitana, able to produce something like that. It's going to be an immense challenge for England, but Sarina Wiegman can perhaps point to some elements of encouragement from the game. Germany gave the best blueprint yet (an admittedly common theme) for how to face Spain. They stopped them like no one else. They almost won it at the end of the 90, too, forcing Cata Coll into a double save that was arguably the equal of anything Berger offered. It looked like Klara Buhl's deflected shot was going to drop into the net like a falling leaf, only for the goalkeeper to claw it away before showing incredible reflexes and strength to immediately get up and block Carlotta Wamser's effort. That was a moment every bit as important as Aitana's goal, even if it will naturally be overtaken in the collective memories of this semi-final. There was a lot to take in, which is another element. Spain had to go the distance, and to the very end of extra-time, and that with one day less to prepare than England. Except, in all of that, and a performance that was understandably their least convincing of the tournament so far, they still created a series of chances. They still showed a resolve to match England's. They still showed their genius, as well as the special quality of their star player. No matter anyone's opinion on whether the goal was meant, there's no disputing its meaning. The world champions are in their first ever European Championship final, for a grand showdown with England. A moment like that only makes it even more of a match to savour.
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Aitana Bonmati interview: ‘I found myself in a situation of suffering. You feel alone'
It was 7am on Thursday, June 26 when Aitana Bonmati began to feel unwell. She had been in Madrid for four days with the Spanish national team preparing for a match against Japan and the European Championship to follow. Like the other players, she was up and getting ready for an earlier-than-usual training session in an attempt to avoid the intense heat. 'That's when I started to feel very ill,' Bonmati says, speaking to The Athletic in Lausanne, Switzerland, two days before Spain's Euro 2025 quarter-final against the hosts. 'I had a bad headache, which surprised me because it was constant and wouldn't go away. 'I was like that until Friday at noon, when the doctor told me to go to the hospital because something was wrong. He wanted to rule out anything more serious than a simple cold or a mild illness. There, they did a CT scan and everything came back fine. Then they did a blood test and everything came back fine. Then they did a lumbar puncture, which is where they found I had viral meningitis.' Bonmati, the reigning two-time Ballon d'Or winner, was lying on her hospital bed when the doctor delivered the news. Fortunately, it was not bacterial meningitis, which takes much longer to recover from. That evening, her Spain team-mates were in action against Japan in their final game before departing, three days later, for the Euros. During the match, the midfielder posted a picture from her hospital bed, with the game on the television in front of her and an emoji of an arm flexing its biceps, as if to say she felt strong. 'She is a very important player for us, we are going to wait for her until the end,' Spain head coach Montse Tome said after the match. At the hospital, the 27-year-old continued to talk with doctors. 'They explained what meningitis meant. I also started looking it up on the internet because meningitis is something you may have heard of but don't really know what it is.' Everything pointed to the player missing the first matches of the Euros. Alarm bells rang. 'The diagnosis was that I might be unwell for five to 10 days, and then I might have some symptoms,' she adds. 'At that point, I didn't get too worked up. I was coming to terms with the fact that I had something that I didn't even know what it was. I accepted it and carried on. 'I was away from my home environment because I was with the national team and at that precise moment I was alone. Then a lifelong friend of mine, Maria, came. She came on Saturday and stayed until Sunday. She slept in my room with me. I didn't have any other visitors because I didn't want to bring people over if I didn't know when I was going to be discharged. 'I found myself in a situation of suffering, because when something happens to you that you don't understand where it comes from, you feel a little alone because you're not in your close environment. But I'm very grateful to Maria for always supporting me. It's good to have people like that around. 'At that moment, I wasn't thinking about whether I would be able to come back or not because I was confident I would get through it. At no point did I think I was out of the Euros. 'I took it easy and I didn't get carried away. All the work I do every day to take care of myself: to eat well, to be healthy, not to smoke, not to drink alcohol, basic things like that, to play sport, obviously… I think your body remembers how you treat it. I'm not a doctor, but I think that helped me.' Three days after being admitted to the hospital, Bonmati was discharged. The next day, she travelled to Lausanne, Spain's base camp, to rejoin her team-mates. 'Fortunately, I was only really unwell for two or three days, but then I made a radical change for the better,' she says. 'I didn't have a gradual progression; I went from feeling very bad to feeling fine.' At a press conference prior to Spain's opening match against Portugal, Tome said the player's progress was positive, that she had shown a very good attitude but that 'Aitana had to be slowed down'. 'From then on, I wanted to speed things up because I felt fine and had no symptoms whatsoever,' Bonmati says. 'I wanted to start training, even if it was gradually. I wanted to get my body working. 'It's part of who I am. I don't want to waste a single day. If I'm 100 per cent fit to be there, I'll be there. I don't like wasting days. Here, a day lost is a day less. On the Sunday when I was discharged, I trained in Las Rozas (Madrid). I went to the gym and moved around a bit. I had been lying down for three or four days without doing anything. 'On Monday morning, I trained again at the gym a little harder, starting to try some jumps to see how the pressure in my head felt. Everything went well. I arrived in Lausanne and started training the next day. The group was already training, and I trained separately. 'Obviously, I would like the progress to have been faster. I suppose everyone here is aware and takes some responsibility because it's not just any illness. I understand that. But I felt fine, I wanted to start feeling part of the group. I had already felt out of the group for a few days. If I felt fine, why couldn't I come back sooner? That was the frustration I felt. Looking at it in perspective, I suppose you have to understand everyone's opinion. 'I don't consider myself a player who finds it difficult to get into shape; I had a lot of confidence in my body and my physical condition. It has been a learning process. Life sometimes throws you these setbacks that make you deal with certain situations you're not used to. 'I wanted to be on the pitch, I wanted to feel good. I wanted to enjoy and I haven't enjoyed what's happened to me very much because I've had to deal with this frustration.' Remarkably, six days after the diagnosis, Bonmati came off the bench with nine minutes remaining of the 5-0 win over Portugal. She had spent the entire match standing in the technical area or by the bench, waving her arms as she always does when she plays to communicate with her team-mates. Like a police officer, as her father always jokes. 'On the one hand, I felt proud to have been part of the match and to have been able to play for a few minutes,' she says. 'On the other, I felt frustrated… But obviously, with what had happened to me, I had to be more grateful than frustrated.' Against Belgium, all eyes were on whether she would return to the starting XI or not. Tome decided to go with Vicky Lopez again. 'It was something that was discussed internally,' Bonmati says. 'We wanted to take good care of my physical condition so I would be in the best possible shape for the most important part, which is now (the knockout stages). Having been in the hospital, I had to respect the timeframe; they treated it as if it were an injury. When a player is injured, they're not going to exploit her. 'Sometimes you have to reach agreements or understand the other person's point of view. As a player, I was frustrated to see the process taking so long, but I know it was done with my best interests in their minds.' She made her first start of the Euros against Italy in the final group match — a 3-1 win — and is now able to think again about adding the one title that is missing from her collection. 'What we have done so far is very good and it's a good platform to face what's coming,' she says. 'But now we have decisive, do-or-die matches against tough opponents. Next up is Switzerland, the host nation. We're back in the quarter-finals against the host nation — in 2022, it was England. Now it's Switzerland. 'They've had a great tournament and, as the hosts, there are things that work in their favour. The crowd will be behind them. But it's also cool as a player to experience these moments.' Which other teams has she been impressed by? 'I really like France and Germany,' she says. 'France are a different team from what we've seen in recent years. They're very young with a lot of talent and versatility. They have a rich bench to change things up and energise the games. They have some very good players, such as Delphine Cascarino. 'Then there is Germany. The other day, they conceded four goals and had a player sent off, but they started the game (against Sweden) with a brutal level of intensity. In fact, we commented with some players that they were flying. I'm really liking (Klara) Buhl, I think she's at a very good level. (Jule) Brand too.' Spain are based in Lausanne, on the shores of Lake Geneva, and the team are making the most of what Switzerland has to offer. 'It's one of my favourite countries,' she says. 'I came here years ago on a trip, in winter. It's a country that transports you to tranquillity. It seems that everywhere you go is like a postcard landscape. Everywhere. 'Being in a city like Lausanne, with the hotel in the centre, gives us freedom to visit places. The other day we had a day off and we all did what we wanted. We went on an excursion I organised to some mountains nearby, on a rack railway, with spectacular views. It's all about breathing fresh air and tranquillity all the time. 'It's something that's sometimes lacking in Catalonia, which also has stunning landscapes, but in the area where I live, it's not the same. Switzerland is an amazing country.' But now, with the quarter-finals under way, it is time for business. 'I'm approaching this final stretch with a lot of energy, enthusiasm and excitement, eager to play three good matches,' Bonmati adds. 'Let's hope it's three, because that would be good news. And I'm feeling very well.' This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Barcelona, Spain, Premier League, La Liga, Women's Soccer, Women's Euros 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
17-07-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Aitana Bonmati interview: ‘I found myself in a situation of suffering. You feel alone'
It was 7am on Thursday, June 26 when Aitana Bonmati began to feel unwell. She had been in Madrid for four days with the Spanish national team preparing for a match against Japan and the European Championship to follow. Like the other players, she was up and getting ready for an earlier-than-usual training session in an attempt to avoid the intense heat. Advertisement 'That's when I started to feel very ill,' Bonmati says, speaking to The Athletic in Lausanne, Switzerland, two days before Spain's Euro 2025 quarter-final against the hosts. 'I had a bad headache, which surprised me because it was constant and wouldn't go away. 'I was like that until Friday at noon, when the doctor told me to go to the hospital because something was wrong. He wanted to rule out anything more serious than a simple cold or a mild illness. There, they did a CT scan and everything came back fine. Then they did a blood test and everything came back fine. Then they did a lumbar puncture, which is where they found I had viral meningitis.' Bonmati, the reigning two-time Ballon d'Or winner, was lying on her hospital bed when the doctor delivered the news. Fortunately, it was not bacterial meningitis, which takes much longer to recover from. That evening, her Spain team-mates were in action against Japan in their final game before departing, three days later, for the Euros. During the match, the midfielder posted a picture from her hospital bed, with the game on the television in front of her and an emoji of an arm flexing its biceps, as if to say she felt strong. 'She is a very important player for us, we are going to wait for her until the end,' Spain head coach Montse Tome said after the match. At the hospital, the 27-year-old continued to talk with doctors. 'They explained what meningitis meant. I also started looking it up on the internet because meningitis is something you may have heard of but don't really know what it is.' Everything pointed to the player missing the first matches of the Euros. Alarm bells rang. 'The diagnosis was that I might be unwell for five to 10 days, and then I might have some symptoms,' she adds. 'At that point, I didn't get too worked up. I was coming to terms with the fact that I had something that I didn't even know what it was. I accepted it and carried on. Advertisement 'I was away from my home environment because I was with the national team and at that precise moment I was alone. Then a lifelong friend of mine, Maria, came. She came on Saturday and stayed until Sunday. She slept in my room with me. I didn't have any other visitors because I didn't want to bring people over if I didn't know when I was going to be discharged. 'I found myself in a situation of suffering, because when something happens to you that you don't understand where it comes from, you feel a little alone because you're not in your close environment. But I'm very grateful to Maria for always supporting me. It's good to have people like that around. 'At that moment, I wasn't thinking about whether I would be able to come back or not because I was confident I would get through it. At no point did I think I was out of the Euros. 'I took it easy and I didn't get carried away. All the work I do every day to take care of myself: to eat well, to be healthy, not to smoke, not to drink alcohol, basic things like that, to play sport, obviously… I think your body remembers how you treat it. I'm not a doctor, but I think that helped me.' Three days after being admitted to the hospital, Bonmati was discharged. The next day, she travelled to Lausanne, Spain's base camp, to rejoin her team-mates. 'Fortunately, I was only really unwell for two or three days, but then I made a radical change for the better,' she says. 'I didn't have a gradual progression; I went from feeling very bad to feeling fine.' At a press conference prior to Spain's opening match against Portugal, Tome said the player's progress was positive, that she had shown a very good attitude but that 'Aitana had to be slowed down'. 'From then on, I wanted to speed things up because I felt fine and had no symptoms whatsoever,' Bonmati says. 'I wanted to start training, even if it was gradually. I wanted to get my body working. Advertisement 'It's part of who I am. I don't want to waste a single day. If I'm 100 per cent fit to be there, I'll be there. I don't like wasting days. Here, a day lost is a day less. On the Sunday when I was discharged, I trained in Las Rozas (Madrid). I went to the gym and moved around a bit. I had been lying down for three or four days without doing anything. 'On Monday morning, I trained again at the gym a little harder, starting to try some jumps to see how the pressure in my head felt. Everything went well. I arrived in Lausanne and started training the next day. The group was already training, and I trained separately. 'Obviously, I would like the progress to have been faster. I suppose everyone here is aware and takes some responsibility because it's not just any illness. I understand that. But I felt fine, I wanted to start feeling part of the group. I had already felt out of the group for a few days. If I felt fine, why couldn't I come back sooner? That was the frustration I felt. Looking at it in perspective, I suppose you have to understand everyone's opinion. 'I don't consider myself a player who finds it difficult to get into shape; I had a lot of confidence in my body and my physical condition. It has been a learning process. Life sometimes throws you these setbacks that make you deal with certain situations you're not used to. 'I wanted to be on the pitch, I wanted to feel good. I wanted to enjoy and I haven't enjoyed what's happened to me very much because I've had to deal with this frustration.' Remarkably, six days after the diagnosis, Bonmati came off the bench with nine minutes remaining of the 5-0 win over Portugal. She had spent the entire match standing in the technical area or by the bench, waving her arms as she always does when she plays to communicate with her team-mates. Like a police officer, as her father always jokes. 'On the one hand, I felt proud to have been part of the match and to have been able to play for a few minutes,' she says. 'On the other, I felt frustrated… But obviously, with what had happened to me, I had to be more grateful than frustrated.' Against Belgium, all eyes were on whether she would return to the starting XI or not. Tome decided to go with Vicky Lopez again. 'It was something that was discussed internally,' Bonmati says. 'We wanted to take good care of my physical condition so I would be in the best possible shape for the most important part, which is now (the knockout stages). Having been in the hospital, I had to respect the timeframe; they treated it as if it were an injury. When a player is injured, they're not going to exploit her. Advertisement 'Sometimes you have to reach agreements or understand the other person's point of view. As a player, I was frustrated to see the process taking so long, but I know it was done with my best interests in their minds.' She made her first start of the Euros against Italy in the final group match — a 3-1 win — and is now able to think again about adding the one title that is missing from her collection. 'What we have done so far is very good and it's a good platform to face what's coming,' she says. 'But now we have decisive, do-or-die matches against tough opponents. Next up is Switzerland, the host nation. We're back in the quarter-finals against the host nation — in 2022, it was England. Now it's Switzerland. 'They've had a great tournament and, as the hosts, there are things that work in their favour. The crowd will be behind them. But it's also cool as a player to experience these moments.' Which other teams has she been impressed by? 'I really like France and Germany,' she says. 'France are a different team from what we've seen in recent years. They're very young with a lot of talent and versatility. They have a rich bench to change things up and energise the games. They have some very good players, such as Delphine Cascarino. 'Then there is Germany. The other day, they conceded four goals and had a player sent off, but they started the game (against Sweden) with a brutal level of intensity. In fact, we commented with some players that they were flying. I'm really liking (Klara) Buhl, I think she's at a very good level. (Jule) Brand too.' Spain are based in Lausanne, on the shores of Lake Geneva, and the team are making the most of what Switzerland has to offer. 'It's one of my favourite countries,' she says. 'I came here years ago on a trip, in winter. It's a country that transports you to tranquillity. It seems that everywhere you go is like a postcard landscape. Everywhere. Advertisement 'Being in a city like Lausanne, with the hotel in the centre, gives us freedom to visit places. The other day we had a day off and we all did what we wanted. We went on an excursion I organised to some mountains nearby, on a rack railway, with spectacular views. It's all about breathing fresh air and tranquillity all the time. 'It's something that's sometimes lacking in Catalonia, which also has stunning landscapes, but in the area where I live, it's not the same. Switzerland is an amazing country.' But now, with the quarter-finals under way, it is time for business. 'I'm approaching this final stretch with a lot of energy, enthusiasm and excitement, eager to play three good matches,' Bonmati adds. 'Let's hope it's three, because that would be good news. And I'm feeling very well.'
