Keira Walsh outlines hopes for Euro 2025 final as Lionesses face Spain repeat
Keira Walsh is gunning for victory over Spain in Sunday's Euros final but still hopes her opponents can enjoy the game and avoid a repeat of the distractions which followed the 2023 World Cup final. What should have been a celebration for Spain after they beat England in Australia was marred by post-match controversy when Spanish football chief Luis Rubiales kissed player Jenni Hermoso without her consent.
Rubiales denied charges of sexual assault, but was later found guilty by a Spanish court. He was acquitted of a separate charge of coercion in relation to the events which followed that final.
England and Spain will meet again on Sunday in Basel and Walsh wants the football to be the main story this time. 'The most important thing for them as a footballer is that they can enjoy this final – that there's not the controversy surrounding it and the girls deserve to be there to play incredible football,' the midfielder said.
'First and foremost for them as human beings is that they can actually just go out and enjoy this game. After the game there was a lot of controversy and I don't think, for them, there was enough spotlight on how incredible they played and how incredible some of their players were, it was all about the other stuff that had gone on.
'As a professional, that was disappointing to see. I have a lot of friends in that team and I think they probably deserved a little bit more than what they got.'
England saw a huge boost in women's football after their Euros triumph on home soil in 2022. It hasn't been the same in Spain, though, and Walsh - who was a Barcelona player at the time - saw some of it first-hand.
"I think they probably could have had more [respect]. I think, the way our league jumped after we won the Euros and everything in and around it, if you compare it to Spain it probably wasn't the same and they won the World Cup."
The Lionesses played 120 minutes for the second straight game in Tuesday's semi-final against Italy. They didn't need penalties, as was the case in the previous round against Sweden, but recovery will be the key after going the distance for the second time in a week.
Sarina Wiegman's squad have been spending time out by the pool as they aim to take advantage of the extra day's recovery - they have five days between matches, rather than four during the group stages. However Walsh is prepared for another long, drawn out game and a chance to show the never-say-die mentality.
'"Honestly, I think [that mentality] it's a part of being English," she said. "That's what we feel when we put the shirt on – it's that we give everything, we run ourselves into the ground.
"That's the beauty of this squad is that we know that if we have to come off because we're tired, there's going to be someone else who's going to come on and finish the job. That's kind of just what we speak about as a team is that English resilience and it's something that we're really pride ourselves on and you can see that in the last two games that that's something we really believe in."
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