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Aitana Bonmati reveals England’s mistake and the quality to define Euro 2025 final
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- Aitana Bonmati reveals England’s mistake and the quality to define Euro 2025 final
At Euro 2025, Aitana Bonmati has already demonstrated her ability to be patient, and wait for the gaps to open up. Here, though, the world's best player is sitting in front of a tactics board, pushing markers across a Subbuteo pitch and explaining how Spain defeated England to win the 2023 World Cup final.
Across sport, and certainly in football, It is rare to come across examples of the best in the world calmly articulating the little moments that separate their genius from the rest. But Bonmati is an exception in many respects and, at 27, the midfielder's awareness of space and her ability to exploit it is what defines her generational talent.
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England already have a painful example of how Bonmati's reading of the game proved to be the difference in a final of small margins; Olga Carmona's goal won Spain their first World Cup two years ago but it was the trap Bonmati laid for Lucy Bronze that triggered the counter-attack.
Bonmati's intelligence to close the pitch and block the pass to Ella Toone created the critical turnover that England will be out to avenge in Basel on Sunday.
If Spain are in need of another defining moment, it will likely come from the vision and mind of their No 6, who has gone from spending four days in a Madrid hospital to the Euro 2025 final in the space of four weeks. It is no coincidence that Bonmati pointed to her head after appearing to defy physics with the goal that sent Spain through to the final .
As Barcelona and Spain have led the way, Bonmati has emerged as their leading star. She has embodied the skill that has flowed through the best two teams in the world, as well as their determination to leave the game in a better place. It is a quality she inherited from birth. When Bonmati won her first Ballon d'Or after Spain's World Cup triumph, she thanked her parents for the "fight and resilience in my blood" - they were both teachers of languages and Catalan culture, as well as socialists and campaigners for Catalonian independence.
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Her parents, Rosa Bonmatí Guidonet and Vicent Conca i Ferràs, also fought to change a Spanish law that stated children had to take their father's name first and their mother's name second. Two years after Bonmati was born, they won. As it is, she takes her first surname, Bonmati, from her mother, and her second surname, Conca, from her father, and was one of the first children in Spain to have her surnames in that order.
There was a sense of deja vu in the Spanish camp when Bonmati was admitted to hospital with viral meningitis in the week before the Euros, having missed their friendly against Japan. It came three years after Alexia Putellas, then the Ballon d'Or holder, suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in training on the eve of Euro 2022, forcing her to miss the tournament completely. The shock, though, wore off as Bonmati posted a positive update from hospital and was later discharged, but she still began Spain's first two games of the tournament on the bench and with some doubts over her fitness.
Bonmati thrives in small spaces thanks to her vision and close control (Getty Images)
Bonmati points to her head after scoring Spain's winner against Germany (Getty Images)
In her place, there was the romantic story of Putellas coming back to her best, making up for lost time with three goals and four assists during the group stage as Spain cruised into the quarter-finals. Alongside her, there has also been the triumphant return of Patri Guijarro, who sat out of the last World Cup in protest of unequal conditions and sacrificed herself as Spain defied their own federation to claim a historic victory. Guijarro has resumed her integral role in the base of Spain's midfield, adding to their control with her calm, forceful presence.
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But they may not be in the final were it not for Bonmati. After starting in Spain's final group game, a 3-1 win over Italy as coach Montse Tome made several changes to her side, Bonmati has stepped up in the knockout stages and when a moment of inspiration has been required. In the quarter-finals, there was her back-heel flick on the edge of the box to release Athenea del Castillo for Spain's breakthrough against Switzerland. Then, in the semi-finals, Bonmati split the narrow gap between Ann-Katrin Berger and her near post to send Spain through.
Afterwards, Bonmati revealed how Spain had studied Berger's positioning and spotted that the goalkeeper had a tendency to step off her front post in anticipation of the pull-back. Bonmati only needed a second to recognise the situation unfolding in front of her as she let the ball run through her legs and span into the box; hurtling towards the byline, with Rebecca Knaak already committed to diving in, Bonmati did not even need to look up to know where the gap had opened up.
And as England have already found out to their cost, if there is space, Bonmati will find it.
