“This team deserved more” says Montse Tomé after Spain lose Euro final | OneFootball

Spain’s head coach Montse Tomé claimed that her side deserved not to be on the losing end of the Euro 2025 final after falling to penalty defeat against England, and players Aitana Bonmatí and Irene Paredes shared a similar sentiment.

Player of the Tournament Bonmatí said: “I’m in shock. We’ve given everything. I must apologise for my missing my [missed] penalty and congratulate England. We played well. We were the better side, but that’s not everything, you have to put it in the net.”

“In the end, it all comes down to penalties. I’m devastated, we worked so hard for this, the same thing happened to us in the Champions League with Barcelona. From the 70th minute onwards, we were in control of the game. We were the better team.”

“They weren’t getting [forward]. No one is to blame: we win and lose together. Right now, with this frustration, with this pain. It feels so cruel, because everything is decided here and now. Now it seems like everything is bad, but I think we’re the ones who have done the best, who have played the best, who have the most talent.”

Captain Paredes agreed that Spain had deserved the trophy more, and even attributed England’s ultimate victory to luck.

“We deserved more, but who doesn’t deserve more? England had that bit of luck they’ve had throughout the tournament. I was confident we were going to pull it off, but it wasn’t to be,” she said.

“We both had moments, but overall we had more control of the game and created the clearer chances. But this isn’t about possession and creating chances, it’s about scoring. They scored a goal that I think was avoidable.”

In her post-match press conference, Tomé said: “Of course, I think this team deserved more. I feel we worked hard during a long time to reach this moment, to reach this final against a high-level national team as England, and what we saw during the game makes me feel that the team deserved having more, not leaving with this bitter feeling. This is sport. You must know how to lose and today we missed the penalties. We did a good first half. Then with the 1-1 and then in extra time we managed to control the ball but we didn’t manage to get the victory.”

“I think we were better but football is a sport where not always the best team wins. England is an excellent national team. They showed a high level during the tournament. They draw and then they defend themselves to get to the penalty.”

Of course, it was penalties where everything went awry for Spain, but Tomé believed she’d picked the right players for the job.

“As for choosing the [penalty] takers, we trained this quite a lot, we chose the player we thought showed in the training, Mariona [Caldentey] usually shoots penalties with us, Patri [Guijarro] doesn’t shoot them for her team but she does for us. I asked them if they felt ready. All of them said they were confident, I felt confident, and it was my decision at the end of the day. At the end of the day, it can happen, but all of the players did an excellent tournament,” she said.

“England has been playing on the limit for several games in this tournament. Sometimes they had some difficulties but they overcame them. They have very competitive players and this is giving good results for them. During the extra time, we recovered the midfield, we generated attacks, but the opportunities we had were not [taken] and in the penalties they were better than us.”