UEFA Women's Under-19 EURO final report: Spain 2-1 Netherlands (aet)

Substitute Intza Eguiguren scored just before the end of extra time to give Spain victory in the 2024 UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship against the Netherlands.

Match in brief: Spain leave it late

The Netherlands had kept clean sheets in their last three games, starting with their 1-0 defeat of Spain on Matchday 2, but were behind to the holders within six minutes. Player of the Tournament Daniela Agote received the ball in the box could have played the ball to the unmarked Pau Comendador on the left but instead slipped it right to Marísa García, who cut back and curled a shot past Danae van der Vliet.

Spain, unchanged from their comfortable 3-1 semi-final victory against England, now looked to turn the screw but the Netherlands nearly levelled when an Eunate Astralaga clearance was intercepted and played to Danique Tolhoek, who missed the target with only the keeper to beat. Jade van Hensbergen looked to chip Astralaga from distance and was not far off doing so following a sweeping Netherlands move.

At half-time the Netherlands introduced Hanna Huizenga, who came off the bench to equalise against Germany the only other time they had conceded in these finals, and they began the second half brightly, Lotte Keukelaar (who scored the group-stage winner against Spain) shooting over while Adriana Ranera blocked a Van Hensbergen effort. And Keukelaar made the equaliser, tackling Ainhoa Alguacil on the edge of the box and delivering the ball for Tolhoek to stroke in.

The Netherlands continued to have the better of play and in the 90th minute a superb Astralaga save denied Keukelaar but then Spain so nearly won it before extra time only for Van der Vliet to deny Agote, before Marisa's shot was blocked by Isa Kardinaal.

The winning goalUEFA via Sportsfile

There were few chances in the additional half-hour although Karlijn Woons clipped the crossbar from distance. It seemed, just as last year, the final would go to penalties, when Olga San Martín got to the byline and cut-back, via a deflection, for fellow substitute Eguiguren to slide in at the far post to spark wild celebrations.

Reaction 

Intza Eguiguren, Spain winning goalscorer: "To be honest, I’m speechless. I wasn’t expecting this, the ball dropped to me, I was lucky enough to be there, and I scored. I don’t know what Oihane meant to do; she passed it back and it hit the defender. I was at the back post, the ball fell to me, and it went in. I don’t even know how I celebrated it. I had my GPS in my hand, and I threw it away. I’m extremely happy.

"I’m aware that it is very hard to get [to a UEFA competition final]; not many make it. I had that opportunity and tried to make the most out of it."

Daniela Agote, Spain forward and Player of the Tournament: "I’m honestly very happy and excited that we won, that we’re the champions. And I wasn’t expecting this trophy.

"I felt a lot of excitement during the entire game because they would attack and then we would attack. [We were] two very evenly-matched teams. I felt so much joy when we scored the [winning] goal, because I could already feel that we would be champions.

"Even though I’ve been named the Player of the Tournament, it’s all thanks to the team because, without them, I couldn’t have been the best player. Every one of us has done everything in our power to win. So, I think this award is also theirs."

Sonia Bermúdez, Spain coach: "We went through a lot in this EURO. We’ve worked a lot as well. We started off poorly; we didn’t even recognise the way we were playing, but the team have shown their personality, so we’re very happy, so it’s time to celebrate.

[On the substitutes combining for the winner] "Some players start from the beginning, some that come on in the second half contribute and end up being important. We’re a team, and they all knew they could contribute at any time.

"We were sure we would score before the penalty shoot-out and that we wouldn’t be going to penalties, and that’s how it went. It turned out well, so we’re very happy. Let’s enjoy it; we deserve it."

Sherida van Bruggen, Netherlands coach: "First of all congratulations to Spain. It was a tough match especially because of extra time. I think they were more effective in this match.

"Spain were better in the first part of the first half after that we were able to get more pressure on the build-up. In the second half we were getting better and better, they were very deep on the pitch in the 5-4-1. We had some chances, but we didn’t score unfortunately."

Key stats

• Spain match Germany's records of three titles in a row and six overall. They also maintained their current clean sweep of UEFA and FIFA women's youth tournaments having won the 2024 WU17 EURO in May and the last FIFA U-17 and U-20 Women's World Cups in 2022.
• Spain were in a record 11th final (although Germany also have 11 top-two finishes including the four-team round robin WU18 EURO finals of 1998/99). They were in their eighth final in nine editions.
• Spain would match their feat of 2018, the only previous year to date where the same nation has won WU17 EURO and WU19 EURO.
• Serbia's Nina Matejić ended as finals top scorer on five goals. Tolhoek was the overall leading scorer including qualifying with 15 goals.
• Sonia Bermúdez was coaching in her second straight final having led Spain to victory in her debut season a year ago.
• Judit Pujols was part of the Spain side who won last year's tournament in Belgium but did not get on the pitch in the final.

Line-ups

Spain: Astralaga; Noemi, A Camara, Ranera, Judit; Alguacil (Eguiguren 91), Artero, Librán (San Martín 64); Agote (San Nicolás 115), Marisa (Gil Villar 106), Pau (Arques 78)

Netherlands: Van der Vliet; De Klonia (Rademaker 112), Woons, Kardinaal, Chibani; Proost (Van de Velde 87), Van Hensbergen, Van Uden (Verdaasdonk 112); Van Koppen (Huizenga 46), Tolhoek (Iedemea 101), Keukelaar