Spain Defeats England to Reach Nations League Semis

Spain’s Claudia Pina came off the substitute and scored twice to help the defending Nations League champions come back from a goal down to beat England 2-1 on Tuesday. This win put Spain in the last four of this year’s championship.

Germany and France had already won Groups 1 and 2, therefore, the world champions, Spain, and the European champions, England, met to decide their group. In Stockholm, Sweden and Denmark played a winner-takes-all game that started half an hour later.

From the start, Spain put England under a lot of pressure. Striker Esther Gonzalez forced England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton to make a great one-handed save early on. But Alessio Russo scored against the run of play in the 22nd minute to give the visitors the lead.

The home team had a lot of the ball, but they didn’t create many serious chances. Pina came on in the 58th minute and equalized less than two minutes later by sending a shot across Hampton and into the net. England was punished for losing control while trying to play out from the back.

Pina, who is 23 years old, scored the winning goal 10 minutes later with a great dipping shot that left Hampton defenseless. She made her case for a starting berth in Euro 2025, which starts in a month. The result gave Spain 15 points from six games, five more than England.

Sweden is certain to join Spain in the final four after they took a 3-0 lead over Denmark in the first 11 minutes of their home encounter. By the hour mark, they were up 5-1.