The world champions had just lost the Euro 2025 final against England following a penalty shootout, falling at the final hurdle in their bid to add the European Championship to the World Cup they won in 2023 and the Nations League trophy lifted in 2024.
The disappointment will be felt deeply. They were the favourites against the Lionesses, even though this was their first final in this competition. In fact, Spain had never previously won a match in a knockout game at a European Championship.
But when the dust settles and the pain of defeat has eased, they can at least reflect that this tournament has represented a huge step forward for the Spanish national team. The final outcome might suggest otherwise, but they will surely remember Euro 2025 as a significant moment in the development of women’s football in the country.
The 2023 World Cup arrived amid a battle between the players and the Spanish football federation, the RFEF, that had been brewing for some time and exploded in September 2022 after the last Euros. The players were demanding minimum conditions that would allow them to perform at their best. They became particularly aware of this with the professionalisation of club teams, led by Barcelona, and saw the difference between playing domestically and internationally. For many of them, playing for the national team was like a trip back in time.
What did they mean by that? Well, everything.
The players wanted better. They wanted to go to competitions in good time to ensure recovery from the journey and avoid it affecting the first match. They wanted to travel in the most comfortable conditions possible to avoid fatigue. They wanted a nutritionist, analysis of their opponents and themselves, enough friendly matches to prepare, physical trainers, more physios, optimal training-ground conditions and elite training.
They felt other teams already had all of this and that it put them at a disadvantage when they faced them. Because when talent was equal, the best-prepared team won.
Another issue was the hotels. They were always isolated, far from the venues hosting the matches in each competition.
“We hardly had any friendly matches, we were staying in hotels located in industrial estates next to petrol stations… we didn’t have the same facilities as other teams to recover quickly, and we had fairly limited staff,” former player Veronica Boquete told The Athletic about the 2013 Euros. Years later, that situation had not improved in line with the developments in the women’s game.
In 2022, the team travelled to Marlow, a small town west of London. For the 2023 World Cup, they were based in Palmerston North, a city in the middle of New Zealand’s North Island, far from all the venues. After the group stage, they had to move to Wellington because there were concerns that the condition of the pitch could cause injuries and the facilities proved to be inadequate.
This summer, the RFEF decided to base the team in Lausanne, a beautiful city with a lake in the centre of Switzerland, close to all venues. The location was convenient for transport and the players felt so comfortable that after each match, they asked to spend the night there instead of in a hotel in the city where they were playing — Bern, Thun, Zurich — except for the day of the final in Basel.
The training ground chosen, the Juan-Antonio-Samaranch Stadium, is one of the best available in Switzerland and the same is true of their chosen hotel, the Hotel Royal Savoy.
The RFEF requested that vinyl stickers be placed throughout the hotel where the players would be staying so they would feel at home and know how to get to where they needed to go. They also travelled with a chef and, for the first time, a maitre d’.
The facilities included a room to help players who are mothers, such as Irene Paredes, balance their family life. It was also useful for Alba Redondo and her stepdaughter. It was a small room with children’s games and a table and chairs for children, close to the dining room where families could eat in peace and where players who needed to could congregate after each meal to be with their little ones.
Patri Guijarro is the yardstick for measuring the level of improvement. She was one of 15 players who asked not to be selected in September 2022 and did return to play in the World Cup. She did not want to come back until the conditions were optimal, until the improvement was real. For the 2024 Olympics and this European Championship, she decided she was satisfied the change had taken place. She returned, becoming one of the best players in the tournament.
“Now we have the perfect food, we recover better with more physios, a psychologist, comfortable travel, a gym in all the facilities… those details also make a difference on the pitch,” Guijarro said in an interview with El Mundo a few weeks ago. “I remember that in England (Euro 2022), the food was always the same. When you’re at the top, those details matter.”
At Euro 2025 — and for the first time — two doctors and six physiotherapists travelled with the team, along with seven people from the communications department, one from ticketing and another from fan experience.
The improvement is dramatic and it is keenly felt. Sources in the dressing room, who wished to remain anonymous to protect their positions, told The Athletic the players finally have confidence that they have professional conditions in absolutely everything. They also feel this is the first tournament they have played in where they have been able to focus solely on football.
Since the team began making improvements, and as soon as they were given a truly professional structure, they have won a World Cup, a Nations League and reached their first Euros final in just two years. During this tournament, they have taken their game to new heights. Their identity is increasingly solid, with an unmistakable style of possession and positioning: tiki-taka.
They finished top of Group B, unbeaten and having scored 14 goals. They were the highest-scoring of all 16 teams in the competition. In the knockout stages, they eliminated hosts Switzerland (2-0), beat Germany in extra time (1-0) and reached the final for the first time.
They showed their strengths, with a midfield that knows each other perfectly, Aitana Bonmati, Guijarro and Alexia Putellas setting the pace for an enthusiastic team in attack. Defensively, there were some weaknesses but ultimately it took a penalty shootout to defeat them.
Now, the players can rest. Their fight for better conditions has been admirable from the outside but devastating from the inside. Three years after it began, they can say it was worth it.
The song chosen as the soundtrack for the Euros in the Spain dressing room was “El principio de algo” (the beginning of something) by Spanish band La La Love You. And that’s what this Euros feels like for Spain, the beginning of something. Even if they lost the final.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Spain, Soccer, La Liga, Women’s Soccer, Women’s Euros
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