England v Spain: Women’s World Cup 2027 qualifying – live
Key events
15 mins: England have had the ball for much of the last three minutes, but the Spanish penalty area has remained resolutely unentered. Indeed their half hasn’t been bothered for a while.
12 mins: Spain keep pushing, but their move ends with one shot being blocked, and another shanked wide.
9 mins: Chance! The ball deflects out for another Spain corner, and Paredes meets it at the far post with a meaty header that just clears the bar. I was worried this might be a bit cagey, but so far it’s been non-stop entertainment.
8 mins: Hampton gives the ball away deep inside England’s half, but Lopez wastes the opportunity – instead of sprinting into the box and shooting she runs towards the area before attempting a pass, which is intercepted.
7 mins: James is found in loads of space on the left, and she gets into the area, jinks past Batlle, and then blasts over from 10 yards or so.
5 mins: Spain now have a corner, but it drifts out for a goal kick. My description of the opener massively downplayed – in fact, completely failed to mention – what was actually an excellent assist from Russo, deliberately finding her teammate while flat on her back.
GOAL! England take the lead! England 1-0 Spain (Hemp, 3 mins)
A corner from the left drops off the back of a defender and falls to Hemp, who swivels and volleys goalwards from about four yards out. Putellas is on the line and hacks it clear, but it crossed the line first!
2 mins: An early foul from Russo, who hacks down Guijarro in the centre-circle. That’s a booking if it happens in the second half, but refs hate an early yellow.
1 min: And we’re off! Spain get the game started.
Right then, nothing between us and football but a few seconds and a whistle.
Tom Garry
There was a huge roar as Sarina Wiegman presented Keira Walsh with a ‘100’ shirt to celebrate the midfielder’s 100th cap tonight. The crowd sound up for this game.
As the players come out a giant three lions emblem is waved around across the centre circle by some uniformed members of the armed forces. It seems a bit demeaning for them, doesn’t it? Is this really what they’ve trained for? Especially when there are some perfectly good maritime straits in need of opening up/shutting down/whatever it is today.
The players are gathering in the tunnel, with kick-off around two anthems, some handshakes and five minutes away.
Tom Garry
Mary Earps has just been presented with a framed shirt on the pitch as the FA celebrate her England career. The former Lionesses goalkeeper received a very warm reception from the crowd. She said the favourite moment of her career was winning the Euros here on this ground in 2022, before receiving her presentation from the FA Chair Debbie Hewitt.
Here’s what Sarina Wiegman has to say …
… about the absent captain, Leah Williamson: “She’s going in the right direction. This was just a little bit too early. We don’t want to take a massive risk with her.”
… about 21-year-old Lucia Kendall, who’s making her competitive debut: “She’s very excited. I think she’s done really well. She’s in good form, I hope she can express herself tonight.”
… and about Keira Walsh, who stands in as captain on her 100th appearance: “A special moment for her, and good timing, playing in Wembley against Spain, so a top-level game. It shows what she has done for England football and how far she has come, and I hope still a lot more to come.”
The teams are out on the pitch and warming up. Here’s Lucy Bronze having a sit-down.
The teams!
Team news is in, and Keira Walsh makes her 100th England appearance in the team’s 499th game, with both sides looking most likely to line up in a 4-3-3:
England: Hampton; Bronze, Wubben-Moy, Morgan, Greenwood; Kendall, Walsh, Stanway; Hemp, Russo, James.
Spain: Coll; Batlle, Paredes, Mapi Leon, Carmona; Caldentey, Guijarro, Putellas; Lopez, Gonzalez, Pina.
Referee: Tess Olofsson (Sweden).
Preamble
Hello! Gird thy loins, world – it’s a hugely massively enormous World Cup qualifier!
Involved are the sides ranked first (that’ll be Spain) and fourth in the world by Fifa (no other group in League A has more than one top 10 side, notably), and the two finalists of last year’s Euros. Unlike England, downed 2-1 by Brazil in a friendly in their first game after winning that title, Spain haven’t lost since, but the two teams’ aggregate scores in six post-Euros matches – England 22-3 Opponents; Spain 14-2 Opponents (and with a much higher standard of opposition) reveal the quality of these sides.
The two teams are competing for one direct qualifying spot for next year’s finals in Brazil, with the other three sides – Iceland and Ukraine round out the group, both of them currently pointless after two matches – booted into various parts of a complicated play-off system. They’ll both want to avoid that if at all possible, and ergo would ideally win tonight. The question is whether one or indeed both of them will concentrate not on winning but on not losing.
Pre-match reading! Here’s Tom Garry’s preview:
Eight-and-a-half months after they locked horns in the final of Euro 2025, England and Spain meet again on Tuesday night in front of more than 70,000 at Wembley. This time it is in qualifiers for the Women’s World Cup, another tournament in which they met in the final last time out.
Despite the relatively brief period since the game in Basel, Spain have a noticeably fresh look with a new head coach and a crop of emerging young players. They have already won a trophy under Sonia Bermúdez, who led them to the Nations League title after replacing Montse Tomé, and, unlike England, are unbeaten since the Euros with five wins and a draw in six matches.
“They have some other players, but their DNA stays the same,” said the England head coach, Sarina Wiegman. “I don’t think that’s going to change.”
Much more here:
