The Assist: Your guide to the Euros final

Spain and England battle it out to become European Champions

July 26, 2025

With the help of GirlsOnTheBall, on the ground in Switzerland, we’ve prepared this lookahead to Sunday’s final.

This final between England and Spain felt inevitable in many ways. Perhaps it didn’t feel that way watching England’s inconsistent performances as the tournament progressed but a match up between the current European Champions and the current World Cup Champions always seemed written in the stars. 

There has certainly been a contrast in both Spain and England’s journeys to the final. Spain cruised through their group, scoring 14 goals, conceding just three.

In the quarterfinals they were tested to a degree against a resilient, disciplined Switzerland, before ultimately dispatching the hosts with two moments of magic.

Their first real challenge came against Germany in the semi-finals. A team who had grafted their way through extra-time and 107 minutes of game time with just 10 players on the pitch against a lightening quick French side.

You might think that was the perfect way to prepare for a semi-final against Spain. La Roja had never beaten Germany, they’d never been to a European final either, two things they managed to overcome in one night.

It took extra time, it took patience, it took a moment of individual brilliance once again, from the [INCREDIBLE] Aitana Bonmatí who, pre-tournament, found herself in hospital after contracting viral meningitis. Germany probed and harried, they challenged the Spanish backline with direct runners but decision making in key moments let the team down and Spain knew they just needed one moment.

While the ease of their journeys have certainly contrasted, there is a similarity for England when it comes to being patient and capitalising on a single turning point. Granted, they have had to do that on more than one occasion en route to the final, but the belief that it will come is the same.

Once again, they left it late against a resilient, defensive, Italian side in the semi final. They struggled to break them down, find the space between the lines, and be clinical when it mattered most.

But, as has become routine for England in Switzerland, the subs did what the subs have done throughout WEURO2025 - they made an impact. Dragging England to extra time, again, with a goal in the dying seconds before hammering the final nail in La Azzurre’s dreams with a dramatic penalty towards the very end of extra-time.

Based on the FotMob ratings across the two semi-finals, here is our automatically selected Best XI, with England’s saviour Michelle Agyemang up front and Spanish goalkeeper Cata Coll taking our top rating.

Both sides can draw on their respective campaigns. Spain know they have played the best football in the tournament, perhaps the best football in the world at times, and that breeds confidence. Conversely, England will be galvanised by the resilience, tenacity, and never say die attitude that they have shown throughout.

These two have already faced each other twice this year, each side taking a win, each side knowing how to beat the other. Spain will want revenge for the manner in which England dispatched them in the quarter finals at WEURO2022, England will want revenge for that loss in the 2023 World Cup Final.

In this instance however, England will start as the underdogs. Spain have been many people’s favourites since the get-go and will continue to be so on Sunday afternoon in Basel.

But as cliched as it sounds, tournament football is never straight forward and knockout football even less so. However these two sides got to the final is irrelevant at this point. It all comes down to a single 90 minute match, quite possibly 120 the way this tournament is going.

Who will turn up on the day? Who will get their tactics spot on? Who will execute their game plan to the best of their undoubted abilities?

That final chapter remains to be written.

Five of FotMob’s top 10 rated players at this year’s tournament will feature in the final - worryingly for England, all five are Spanish (average ratings shown to two decimal places).

This may not come as a surprise to you but our standout moment of the last round has got to be Michelle Agyemang’s 96th minute equaliser to send the game to extra-time, lifting the roof off the stadium.

To top it off, I managed to capture both the bench and the England family and friends’ reaction to the goal. It really sums up the magic moments that happen in major tournaments. Elation, relief and euphoria. The rollercoaster of emotions so many of us felt in the stadium, from despair to delight in a matter of moments in the dying seconds. Who doesn’t love football?