Women’s World Cup: Heartbreak for England as Lionesses miss out on final glory after defeat to Spain
England’s Lionesses have missed out on glory at the Women’s World Cup after being beaten 1-0 by Spain.
Closely missing out on repeating their success at Euros 2022, Sarina Wiegman’s team fought to the very end at a packed-out Stadium Australia in Sydney.
But a first-half goal by Spain’s Olga Carmona, who shot across Mary Earps into the far corner in the 28th minute, broke England’s hearts.
It is Spain’s first major international trophy and makes them the first European team to win the Women’s World Cup since Germany in 2007.
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England had come close to taking the lead themselves in the 15th minute when Lauren Hemp’s shot hit the bar.
A shot from England’s Lauren Hemp, right, hits the crossbar. Pic: AP
Spain’s goal by Olga Carmona
Two changes at half-time saw Lauren James and Chloe Kelly replace Rachel Daly and Alessia Russo for the Lionesses, as they tried to turn the game around.
Spain’s Jennifer Hermoso then missed a chance to double her side’s lead from a penalty – granted after a handball by Keira Walsh – after a heroic save by Earps, who dived to her left to save in the 69th minute.
James then forced a save from Spain’s goalkeeper from a tight angle a few minutes later, as England pushed for an equaliser.
Earps even went up to attack a corner in the dying moments for England.
But sadly, it wasn’t to be, as the Lionesses fell short at the final hurdle.
Earps saved a Spanish penalty. Pic: AP
Play was also briefly disrupted during the first half after a protester entered the pitch before an England free kick. The man was swiftly removed by stewards.
A protester stormed the pitch during the first half of the match
‘Absolutely heartbroken’
Captain Millie Bright said the team were “absolutely heartbroken” at the defeat.
“We can say hand on heart we gave everything. Sometimes football goes for you, sometimes it goes against you,” she said.
Complimenting Spain as a “fantastic team” she said: “A lot of emotion… but I’m really proud of the team. To come this far, to play in the World Cup final, not many get to do that.
“This is not it for us, we’ll bounce back.”
(L-R) Millie Bright and Alex Greenwood
Lauren James
Serena Wiegman said that Spain were “a little better” than England today, adding that the team are “feeling bad” in the aftermath of the loss.
She said she had no regrets despite the defeat.
“We gave it everything we could. We tried different tactics. You have to give credit to Spain. Over the tournament they played the best football, so congratulations to Spain,” she said.
Bethany England and Sarina Wiegman
The game will still go down in history as the first time the Lionesses have reached the final of the tournament.
It is also only the third time Spain have qualified for the World Cup, only having won a single match in the tournament until this year.
But La Roja are now champions of the world, with a victory which will push forward the women’s game in Europe.
Spain celebrate their World Cup win
After the game, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak posted on Twitter to say everyone was “incredibly proud” of the team despite the loss.
Prince William said the Lionesses had done the nation proud after watching the match alongside the Princess of Wales and Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis at home in Sandringham, Norfolk, Kensington Palace said.
The royal had faced criticism for not attending the game in person.
Sadness in Sydney for England – as Spain turn disharmony into delirium
This isn’t how it was meant to end for England.
Hope turned to heartbreak. There was to be no addition to the trophy cabinet for the European champions a year on from Wembley glory. Just sadness in Sydney.
Spain’s is the new name etched on the trophy. At only their third women’s World Cup, they are champions.
They’ve turned disharmony into delirium – a campaign that looked like it was going to be derailed by 15 players quitting international duty last September has ended with the biggest prize of them all.
Only three of the rebel group decided to return to the squad following protests against their treatment by the Spanish Federation.
It is a reminder this World Cup has been surrounded by concerns about the status of players within national football associations.
Even the Lionesses head home from this tournament not only without the trophy, but into talks with the Football Association about the bonuses they believe they’re owed.
They will see this as a missed opportunity as well to conquer the world for the first time, as all the former champions had been toppled before the semi-finals.
The Lionesses were the favourites, but ultimately Spain were supreme in the final.
Sarina Wiegman’s side were reliant on Mary Earps producing several huge saves, including a penalty in the second half that could have seen Spain double their lead.
Even taking that slender 1-0 deficit into the final 20 minutes, England couldn’t find a way to goal.
Now they’ll regroup.
Many of these players will be trying to qualify through the Nations League for the Paris Olympics, where they’ll compete as part of a British team next year.
Then there’s the defence of their Euros title in 2025 before they can set their sights on trying to finally win the World Cup in 2027.
Disappointment after undefeated run to final
England were undefeated in the tournament before today’s game, but the journey to the final wasn’t without its challenges.
Before the World Cup even began, captain Leah Williamson and striker Beth Mead were ruled out of playing in the tournament due to ACL injuries.
The first two games saw the team secure 1-0 victories against Haiti and Denmark, followed by a whopping 6-1 win over China to finish top of Group D.
But the Lionesses were quickly pushed to their limits when coming up against Nigeria.
A red card handed to Lauren James – which was later followed by a two-game suspension – meant the team were down to 10 players in the last 16 match.
The game went down to a nail-biting penalty shoot-out, before a 4-2 win saw them progress into the quarter-finals against Columbia.
After falling behind to a goal from Leicy Santos, goals from Lauren Hemp and Alessia Russo booked them a slot in the semi-finals against co-hosts Australia.
A stunning 3-1 win against the Matildas secured the Lionesses’ spot in the final against Spain, which even without the win felt like a “fairytale” to Weigman, who also took the Netherlands to the final of the tournament in 2019.
Last time England faced Spain – in the 2022 Euro quarter-finals – they won 2-1.
Elon Musk could be on track for a $1trn pay packet.
Tesla shareholders have approved the whopping financial package for the CEO – who’s already worth an estimated $491bn – if he hits a series of ambitious targets over the next 10 years.
But that $1trn figure (or £761,910,000,000) – which is both one thousand billion and one million million – is almost impossible to imagine for most people.
Even so, we have drilled down into the numbers and examined what you can do with a trillion US dollars – and it turns out, quite a lot.
Show me the money
Laid end to end, a trillion one-dollar bills would cover a distance of approximately 156 billion metres.
That could wrap around the equator 3,890 times, easily reach the sun from Earth (around 149.6 million km) or loop from Earth to the moon 405 times.
That many one-dollar notes could cover a massive area (roughly 10,339 km squared), meaning you could blanket nearly all of Lebanon or Jamaica in bills.
Spend it on sport
You could splash out on virtually all of the world’s major sporting leagues.
The clubs which make up the Premier League are relatively cheap ($30bn), and even when snapping up the UEFA Champions League clubs and the big five top divisions of Spain, Italy, Germany, and France, there’s still $858bn left in the kitty.
The four major US sports leagues for ice hockey, baseball, basketball, and American football (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL) have a rough valuation of $544bn, according to Sportico.
But then add the IPL cricket league ($120bn) and F1 ($23.1bn) and Musk still has change from an estimated total spend of $829.7bn.
Elon Musk is in the money if he hits targets set by Tesla’s shareholders. File pic: AP
Take over Tesla’s rivals
He could buy up the top 15 largest publicly traded automakers (excluding Tesla) by market capitalisation.
They would include firms like Japan’s Toyota ($275bn), Chinese automaker BYD ($120bn), and luxury brands like Ferrari ($81bn) and Mercedes-Benz ($62bn), as well as BMW ($52bn), Volkswagen ($50bn) and Ford ($48bn).
But there would still be a little change left over; the total bill would be an eye-watering $992bn.
Buy up San Diego
He could buy up every single residential property in San Diego County – valued at a total of $1trn. Seattle is just slightly out of reach at $1.1trn, according to recent data from real estate firm Zillow.
But if he wanted to buy big – there is always Tennessee. The total value of homes in the US state is estimated at $957bn. Or there is Maryland, which at $1.01trn could be bought if he can find a little more cash behind the sofa.
Sadly, he would struggle to scoop up London’s entire housing stock, which in February was valued at just under £2trn ($2.53trn), according to agents Savills.
Cities like New York ($4.6trn) and Los Angeles ($3.9trn) are also not within his budget, hosting America’s most expensive residential markets.
Do something charitable?
There is always the possibility Musk could follow in the footsteps of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who intends to give away 99% of his vast fortune over the next 20 years.
He could give every single man, woman, and child in the US a share of his cash pile. They would receive approximately $2,917.32 (£2,223.29), based on a population estimate of 342.7 million.
Although it would be roughly $14,348.79 (£10,935.20) for every person (roughly 69.6 million) in the UK.
If he wanted to give the entire globe an early Christmas present, then based on the rough world population estimate of 8.2 billion, everyone would receive $121.80 (£92.87).
Pay off the credit card
With $1trn, he could instantly rewrite history and erase debt interest payments and the government debt from dozens of the world’s sovereign nations.
Or Musk could wipe out the debts of Singapore ($1trn) or South Korea ($0.99trn) in one go, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook (Oct 2025).
But when it comes to the biggest debt-laden countries, $1trn would not even touch the sides.
The US has $38.3trn of government debt (just over one third of the total global debt pile) while the UK has a modest $4.1trn.
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