Sue Smith: Be brave and take risks is the way to beat Spain

England beat them at the last Euros in 2022, then Spain won at the World Cup and the games since have been fascinating, going to and fro, and I expect today’s game to be the same. Spain are the better side at the moment, but England do have the tools to hurt them.

It’s a really interesting match up. Both sides rank the highest in possession at the tournament so it’s going to be a question of who wants – and can command – the ball more? Sarina Wiegman has a dilemma on her hands – do England look to change their natural gameplan because Spain are so good, or do they stick to the way they’ve played to get themselves this far because they are confident in it? I personally think you should have your gameplan and impose it on the opposition, regardless of who they are.

England need to continue to be aggressive, get stuck in and win their battles. You have to be clever about playing Spain – you can’t expect to play them off the park, because if they end up commanding possession they will just play around you, and play you off the park. England have to respect that when they don’t have the ball but I think when they do have it, I’d like to see them be brave and take risks. I always liked that as a player when a coach would say not just “This is how we’re going to stop them”, but rather “This is how we’re going to hurt them”.

While they should be brave on the pitch, I think Wiegman should play it safe in terms of the starting line-up.

You could slightly tweak the system and confuse Spain, but because it is a final I’d stick with the same XI, but I would make substitutions earlier.

The biggest and most important match-up is going to be the midfield area. Spain’s midfield are world class. You have to try to nullify them in the middle to be able to play. If you try to play into central midfield, they are not only technically outstanding but they are also gritty and aggressive.

The other fascinating aspect of this final is just how well both teams will know each other. Arsenal beat Barcelona in this year’s Champions League final, and there are a combined 17 players from those clubs in the Spain and England squads.

Some of them have played alongside each other like Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh at Barcelona, and some have played against each other. But as soon as you go on the field, you completely forget club football and your sole focus is on the international set-up.

I don’t think the occasion will have an impact. There’s a pressure and expectation on both of them because they are so successful. Looking at both teams throughout the tournament, you can see the quality they both have but you can also see their frailties as well. They have shown a never-say-die attitude to winning and consistently find a way even in the most unlikely of circumstances.

From a team perspective, the expectation is that England get this far every time they go to a tournament. Every time they play, the scrutiny is on them. But the nation is also completely behind them. When they won the Euros at Wembley in 2022, they used their platform for good.

It’s about making sure we keep encouraging young girls to be part of football whether that is as a player, a coach, a referee. There’s so much that winning a major tournament can do, we saw that at the last one, and I hope we see it again today.

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