England will know they can play much better than they did in their quarter-final and semi-final wins over Sweden and Italy, and success on Sunday is a matter of them bringing their best game from the first second to the last.
Against a team as good as Spain, they cannot afford any defensive mistakes – they have to be absolutely watertight at the back.
Germany defended superbly against Spain in their semi-final and goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger had a brilliant tournament. But she made one mistake at the very end and that was all it took for them to go out.
Spain have so many world-class players and arguably the best in Aitana Bonmati, that they can take advantage of any error.
England won’t be afraid of them, though. There is no chance of that.
From the outside, beating the world champions might seem like a daunting task. Spain were the better side when they beat the Lionesses in the 2023 World Cup final and they have won 10 games in a row – a run that includes victory over England the last time they met, in June.
But Spain’s last defeat, in February, came against the Lionesses at Wembley. Having a recent result like that to lean on for reassurance is huge ahead of an occasion like this.
I look back at that game and think England can do it this time too – and the players will 100% believe it as well.
