UEFA Women's Under-19 EURO final preview: Spain vs Netherlands

Spain will play the Netherlands in Saturday's UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship final at Darius & Girenas Stadium in Kaunas, Lithuania.

The lowdown

Spain are clearly the dominant force in women's national-team football right now, having missed only one final at any level in the 2020s (UEFA Women's EURO 2022). However, their run looked in peril here after two matchdays when, having being held 0-0 by the Republic of Ireland, they lost 1-0 to an 87th-minute Lotte Keukelaar goal for the Netherlands.

That quickly changed as Spain beat Germany 2-0 to secure second place in Group B and, in Wednesday's semi-finals, they dominated England to win 3-1. If they can confirm that reversal of fortunes by avenging their loss to the Netherlands, a third consecutive Women's U19 EURO title is in their grasp.

The Netherlands, though, can have high hopes of repeating their 2014 triumph, achieved thanks to a 1-0 final win against Spain. Vivianne Miedema scored the decisive goal for a team that also included Jill Roord and Dominique Janssen, all of whom helped the Netherlands claim the senior Women's EURO crown three years later.

The Dutch kept four clean sheets in five games in 2014 and can match that feat in Lithuania, having equalised in the 90th minute on Matchday 1 against Germany before beating Spain 1-0 and the Republic of Ireland 2-0 to top Group B, after which they defeated France 2-0 in their Kaunas semi-final.

Views from the camps

Sonia Bermúdez, Spain coach: "The feelings are very good. The players are conscious that it now takes one last effort to win the trophy.

"The [Netherlands] are a very intense and tough team, and the final will be decided by small details. Tomorrow, we will discover what we learned from the previous game."

Judit Pujols, Spain captain: "I am very motivated and I'm very confident in my team. It's another opportunity to play [the Netherlands].

"We know them, we have watched back the previous match, we have seen the mistakes we made and we know how to put them right. We are a very different team – now we have improved many things."

Sherida van Bruggen, Netherlands coach: "We are looking forward to the final, of course. We are playing against them for the second time, but we are really looking forward to this.

"It makes us feel good [to have kept three clean sheets in a row] and that gives everybody confidence. But we can also score goals and that is very important."

Isa Kardinaal, Netherlands captain: "We're all looking forward to it. We have already beaten Spain, but it's another match – it's the final. We want to win the cup; it's long ago for the Netherlands [since winning in 2014].

"Spain are a very good technical team. They have quick wingers so we have to be careful, but I am confident we can do something against them."

Women's U19 EURO final refereeing team

UEFA via Sportsfile

Silvia Gasperotti of Italy will referee the final, assisted by Svitlana Grushko of Ukraine and Fie Bruun of Denmark, with Belgium's Caroline Lanssens as fourth official.

Gasperotti's previous experience includes both the UEFA Women's Champions League and senior internationals, as well as games in this year's CONMEBOL Sudamericano Femenino Sub-17 in Paraguay.

Key stats

• Spain are in a record 11th final (although Germany also have 11 top-two finishes, including the four-team round robin Women's U18 EURO finals of 1998/99). They are contesting their eighth final in the last nine editions.
• Spain are aiming to match Germany's records of three titles in a row and six overall. They also hope to maintain their current clean sweep of UEFA and FIFA women's youth tournaments, having won the 2024 Women's U17 EURO in May and the last FIFA U-17 and U-20 Women's World Cups in 2022.
• Spain can match their feat of 2018, the only year to date in which the same nation has won the Women's U17 and U19 EUROs. Spain were also in both finals in 2023, 2022, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 (when the Women's U17 EURO was played in December 2013).
• The Netherlands are featuring in their second final, having beaten Spain 1-0 in 2014 thanks to a Vivianne Miedema goal in Oslo.
• Serbia's Nina Matejić is the current finals top scorer on five goals. Two players potentially involved in the final are on two: Pau Comendador of Spain and the Netherlands' Karlijn Woons, who had not scored in six years before putting her side 1-0 up in their last two matches.
• Danique Tolhoek of the Netherlands is the overall leading scorer (including qualifying), having taken her tally to 14 goals by registering against France in the semi-finals.
• Sonia Bermúdez is coaching in her second straight final after leading Spain to victory in her debut season a year ago.
• Judit Pujols was part of the Spain side which won last year's tournament in Belgium, although she did not get on the pitch in the final.
• Judit and Marina Artero were in the Spain team that lost the 2022 Women's U17 EURO final on penalties to Germany, with Eunate Astralaga and Adriana Ranera also in the squad in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Judit, Artero, Cris Librán, Ainhoa Alguacil and (back-up keeper) Astralaga were in the Spain squad that won the subsequent 2022 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
• Alguacil, Librán, Pau, Aïcha Camara, Noe Bejarano, Daniela Arques and Marísa García played for Spain in the 2023 Women's U17 EURO final in Estonia, losing 3-2 to France after beating England 3-1 in the semis.
• The Netherlands have not conceded in their last three games and have kept seven clean sheets in their ten-game run including qualifying, letting in only three goals.