23 July 2025 8:18pm

8:18PM Sarina Wiegman and her England team will be keeping a close eye on this match tonight, potentially hoping the game goes the distance, not just into extra time but all the way to penalties to sap the energy. England also have the advantage of playing 24 hours earlier so longer to recover for the final having gone to extra time last night.

8:17PM We have the first yellow card of the game as Dabritz is penalised for a high boot when challenging for the ball with Caldentey.

8:16PM Buhl has spurned a few chances already and she wastes a good position once more. She is found in space out on the left and moves towards the Spain penalty area but she takes her shot too close to the Spanish defenders and her effort is blocked. Germany are getting a lot of joy going down their left.

8:11PM Patri attempts an audacious shot from a long way out, spotting Berger off her line, but it is off target. Not a million miles wide so worth the effort and what a goal it would have been.

Germany will be the happier of the two sides so far.

8:09PM Germany should be ahead. It comes all the way from their keeper Berger with a long ball forward down the left channel and it goes all the way through to Buhl, who has a fantastic chance on the left side of the box but drags her effort wide of the far post. A warning for Spain and Germany will know they need to be taking opportunities like that.

The first sign of Spain’s big weakness there. Irene Parades is not blessed with pace and she was left exposed as Klara Buhl got in behind her and Ona Batlle. That is clearly where Germany are trying to get at their opponents when they do get the ball back. Buhl should really have taken that chance. Germany cannot afford to waste many opportunities that come their way.

8:07PM Spain have unsurprisingly dominated possession so far but are yet to carve out any opportunity on Germany’s goal.

8:06PM Germany have already crunched into a few tackles and given away a few free-kicks, perhaps wanting to lay down a marker to Spain, saying they will not go down without a fight and will not simply roll over.

Germany are nearly in on the counter-attack as a ball is fed into the left channel trying to find Buhl but Batlle does well covering across to snuff out what could have been a very dangerous moment.

This game has begun in exactly the way we thought it would.

8:03PM As expected, the game has begun with Spain controlling possession and Germany, like they did down to 10 in the quarter-final victory over France, sat deep in an organised structure. Spain, with the likes of Putellas and Bonmati in midfield, will look to control proceedings and an early goal for the world champions would force Germany to alter their plans, maybe not immediately but they would not just be able to sit back for the whole game.

8:00PM We are under way in Zurich. Who will be joining England in Sunday’s final; world and Nations League champions Spain or eight-time European champions Germany?

7:55PM Both sides are ready in the tunnel and then emerge onto the pitch in Zurich. Now it is time for the national anthems; “Marcha Real” followed by “Deutschlandlied”.

Unsurprisingly, there’s a strong Germany support in the stadium tonight. We’re not too far from the German border and their fans have turned out in huge numbers all tournament. Something for England to bare in mind if they do get through here. Plenty of Spanish support in the stands too but it does feel weighted more towards Germany.