Spain beat England to win 2023 Women's World Cup

Spain's players and officials celebrate with the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup trophy after winning the final against England at Stadium Australia in Sydney on Sunday. [AFP/YONHAP]

Spain became the world champions for the first time in history after a 1-0 victory over England in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup final at Stadium Australia in Sydney on Sunday.

Both sides went all out from the start, managing multiple shots on target. Spain opened the scoring with Olga Carmona smashing in a shot inside the penalty box in the 29th minute.

Spain continued to display solid cohesion with short and quick passes, countering England’s pressure. England created a few goal-scoring chances, but failed to find the back of the net.

Spain then found an opportunity to score in the 70th minute with a penalty, but Jennifer Hermoso failed to convert it to the second goal.

England continued to look for the much-needed equalizer, persisting their attack through the end of injury time.

Spain’s defense managed to handle England’s attack through the end of injury time, however, and ended the game at 1-0, winning football’s highest honor for the first time and taking revenge on the side that knocked them out of the Euro 2022 quarterfinals.

Spain displayed significant improvements this year from previous World Cups. They failed to even qualify for the World Cup from 1991 through 2011 and played their first-ever World Cup in 2015, when they finished in the group stage. They then reached the round of 16 in the last World Cup.

England, on the other hand, failed to ride their momentum from the 2022 Euros, but still managed their best finish at the World Cup. Third-place in 2015 was their previous best finish.

Sweden came in third and joint hosts Australia finished fourth.

The 2023 World Cup was the biggest ever Women’s World Cup, including 32 teams compared to 24 in the 2015 and 2019 tournaments.

This year’s edition also saw a huge popularity increase from the previous tournament, as an average 30,198 spectators attended the games in person, compared to 21,756 in 2019.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]