England 0-4 Spain: La Roja land fifth title with emphatic Women's U17 EURO final win

World champions Spain are UEFA European Women's Under-17 Championship winners for the fifth occasion, scoring twice late in the first half before Celia Segura’s double completed a 4-0 victory over first-time finalists England.

Earlier on Saturday in Lund, Poland beat France on penalties to join England and Spain as Europe's representatives in the 2024 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Dominican Republic from 16 October to 3 November.

Match in brief: Scintillating Spain triumph

Spearheaded by tournament top scorer Alba Cerrato, Spain scored six during the opening 31 minutes against France in the semi-finals, avenging their final defeat in 2023. The reigning world champions had to show more patience during an even opening to the decider, containing opponents who had notched nine of their 11 goals at the finals within the first 36 minutes.

Both sides had won every game in their run to this final including qualifying, so it was little surprise that defensive rigour was required – and repeatedly in evidence – in either penalty area as a succession of crucial blocks characterised the early stages, with goalkeepers Rachel McSheffrey and Laia never unduly troubled.

Spain coach Kenio Gonzalo is a studious tactician and his switch changed the course of the contest, swapping wide players Celia Segura and Lua Calo. Four minutes from the break, Segura – a half-time substitute in last year's final – fed Cerrato from the right, who found space between England's tight defending to skim in the opener from close range.

The Lionesses' energetic harrying of Spain's slick passing continued, only for the unfortunate Rachel Maltby to turn in Lorena Cubo's corner at the near post on the stroke of half-time, giving Natalie Henderson's side the onerous task of attempting to become the first team across qualifying and the tournament to score more than once against Spain.

Brown, inspirational captain Laila Harbert and top scorer Isabella Fisher were among their players to have featured in their 2-1 semi-final defeat in this fixture last year, and their hopes of retribution were all but extinguished when Segura nudged in Calo's low 59th-minute delivery as Spain seized on space with dizzying speed and punishing incision.

Segura's second in nine minutes – again from close range, meeting Barcelona team-mate Clara Serrajordi's pass for her ninth goal since qualifying began – capped another swaggering victory for the champions, whose formidable forward line became an irresistible force once the knockout stage began.

Spain's first goal came from a familiar figure in tournament top scorer Alba CerratoUEFA via Sportsfile

Reaction 

Natalie Henderson, England coach: "We're disappointed and it hurts at the end but I just feel so proud of the girls and the staff. We were really good for spells of the game. I've said to the girls, 'keep that medal around your necks – what you've achieved has been excellent.' We certainly enjoyed our football at times, had good possession and created chances. We'd rather go toe to toe with a team who are regular winners of this competition than have not been brave and not played our football. The girls did that when they stepped on the pitch."

Alba Cerrato, Spain forward: "We struggled for the first half-hour but we opened up the wings, executed the gameplan and outperformed them. I was overjoyed – we can't believe it, and the atmosphere when we get to Spain is going to be amazing."

Key stats

• Spain, in a record 11th final, won their fifth title, behind only Germany (8).
• England were in their first final.
• Spain are the first team to win all five games in a WU17 EURO final tournament in regulation time since the group stage was introduced in 2013/14.
• Spain are the first team to go through a WU17 EURO season with 11 wins out of 11 in regulation time (in 2021/22, Germany won their first ten games in regulation but beat Spain in the final on penalties, and in both 2021/22 and 2022/23 Spain got to the final with a perfect record before defeat).
• Cerrato finished as finals top scorer on seven (two off the nine set by Shekiera Martinez of Germany in 2017/18). Including qualifying, she also topped the list on 17, one off the record of 18 jointly held by Netherlands duo Vivianne Miedema (2012/13) and Nikita Tromp (2018/19).
• Spain now hold all four youth world and European women's titles (WU17 EURO, WU-17 World Cup, WU19 EURO, WU-20 World Cup) – the first team to do so simultaneously. They are also senior world champions and hold the UEFA Women's Nations League.

Celia Segura finished the finals on five goals – two behind top scorer Alba CerratoUEFA via Sportsfile

Line-ups

England: McSheffrey, Las, Harbert, Peacock, Wellesley-Smith, Maltby; Parkinson, Junaid, Brown (Cassap 79); Jones (Oboavwodou 65), Fisher (Hibbert-Johnson 89)

Spain: Laia; González, De La Cuerda, Amaya; Gómez (Folgado 81), Cubo (Escot 81), Serrajordi (Dorado 68); Calo (Ortega 68), Cerrato (Moreno 68), Segura