Aitana Bonmati is showing why Spain were so keen to have her back after meningitis scare
In the 113th minute of Spain ’s Euro 2025 semi-final against Germany , with the tie locked at 0-0 and penalties looming, Aitana Bonmati received a pass from Athenea del Castillo inside the area, turned, faced the goal, saw Ann-Katrin Berger had left a gap between her hand and the near post and, despite having barely any angle to work with, sent the winner through that small space.
“When the ball went in, I started running like crazy. I didn’t know where to go,” Spain midfielder Bonmati said. “I found the whole bench on their feet, and I went for it. This goal belongs to everyone. We all work for moments like this, and what better way to share it than with the group?”
Everyone from the Spain dugout followed her, it seemed, celebrating on top of her. Other team-mates, including Olga Carmona , collapsed on the pitch, wanting to cry and to digest what had just happened.
After a hard-fought match, they had done it, achieving two milestones: beating Germany, something Spain’s women had never beaten before, and also reaching the European Championship final for the first time. Now they have the chance to add this trophy to their World Cup triumph from 2023 and Nations League success last year.
When Bonmati was lying in a hospital bed on June 27 with viral meningitis , watching her colleagues’ warm-up friendly against Japan before the team travelled to Switzerland for the Euros, there were fears she would not be healthy enough to play in the tournament, let alone score one of the most important goals in the history of Spanish women’s football.
But the 27-year-old Barcelona forward visualised her return and worked to make it happen as quickly as possible, getting back onto the pitch as a substitute for the opening group-stage match against Portugal less than a week after her diagnosis.
What appeared to the rest of the world to be a rapid and almost miraculous recovery seemed to her to be a process that was slower than she’d expected. “Aitana needs to be stopped (from pushing too hard),” head coach Montse Tome said at a press conference before that Portugal match.
The player’s ambition and determination are very strong. After 15 minutes against the Portuguese and 45 four days later against Belgium , she was in the starting line-up for the group finale with Italy on July 11, playing the full 90 to regain her confidence.
She then repeated this performance against Switzerland in the quarter-finals, providing a top-class assist to Del Castillo with her heel for the first goal of a 2-0 win. That’s where she earned her first player of the match award of this tournament. Until then, she had understandably lacked sharpness in her Euro 2025 performances, but there was no doubt she was back to her best against Germany on Wednesday.
The finest players show up in the biggest games, and Bonmati is particularly good at that. That is one of the reasons why she has two Ballon d’Or awards.
Spain dominated against Germany for practically the entire game. Esther Gonzalez, Claudia Pina and Mariona Caldentey tried everything to score the opening goal, from inside the area and from long range. Irene Paredes hit a post in the 41st minute. Germany goalkeeper Berger went in at half-time wearing a mischievous smile.
Germany tired in the second half but Spain were unable to take advantage. The world champions had a total of 22 goal attempts in the game: nine on target, eight off-target and four blocked, plus that Paredes effort that struck the woodwork.
In the last minute of normal time, Klara Buhl and then a rebound from Carlotta Wamser could have eliminated Spain, but Cata Coll came to their rescue with a double save. She celebrated as if she had scored at the other end.
In extra time, just when everything seemed set for Germany’s second penalty shootout in as many knockout phase games at this tournament, Bonmati made the difference.
As against the hosts on Friday, the Del Castillo-Bonmati combination paid off again. This time it was the other way around, with Del Castillo assisting and Bonmati scoring.
“We studied the goalkeeper and we realised in this action sometimes the (near) post was free,” Bonmati said. “I didn’t think twice about that (going for the near post) because I didn’t want it to reach penalties.”
Curiously, the two players who were decisive in last night’s tie, Coll and Bonmati, were the two major issues for Spain in the run-up to and during these Euros. As well as Bonmati’s illness, Coll came down with tonsillitis and ended up missing the entire group stage.
“It seems like it was written in the stars,” Paredes said. “It looked like they were out of the game, then there were doubts about whether they would make it, and today they were the stars.”
Spain will now meet defending European champions England in Zurich on Sunday — a repeat of that 2023 World Cup final, which the Spaniards won 1-0 in Sydney, Australia.
“Today, I feel like we have made history again,” said Bonmati. “For the first time, we have reached the final of a European Championship and we have beaten Germany, which we had never done before. I am proud to belong to this generation of footballers who are achieving so much. This is not over yet.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic .
Spain, Women's Soccer, Women's Euros
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