The women's team faces the EURO more mature and looking for alternatives to their casualties

MADRID, 7 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Spanish women's soccer team will face its premiere this Friday at the European Championship in England, a tournament where, despite the significant casualties of Alexia Putellas and Jennifer Hermoso, it will try to demonstrate its greater maturity both at a competitive level and in terms of experience in this type of appointments, and also that it has players to supply two of its main weapons.

Spain will face Finland with the hard blow of having lost their leader and benchmark in the field, Alexia Putellas seriously injured in her knee and will be out of the pitch for a long time. The loss of the 'Golden Ball', a differential player, thus joined the one at the beginning of June, with the concentration just begun of Jennifer Hermoso, a striker with a goal, quality, leadership and experience.

With the wicks that remain, the coach Jorge Vilda will have to put together a team with which to rub shoulders with the 'greats' of the continent and demonstrate the competitive capacity of the national team to dream of going as far as possible and overcoming the 'wall' of quarters of 2013 and 2017.

The coach, during this period from France, had designed a very recognizable block and that has been able to chain 23 consecutive games without losing, 19 of them with victory, despite facing potential rivals such as Germany, England or the Netherlands, although all of them in friendlies.

The improvement has come mainly from that hunger that the internationals have shown since the last World Cup where, although they only beat South Africa (3-1), they protected both the Germans and the almighty United States, the only team that has been able to beat them in these last two years.

The team improved its physical condition, especially the players who belong to FC Barcelona and who have added more than experience thanks to their performances in the Champions League, and also significantly improved their offensive performance and strengthened defensively. In fact, he qualified for this EURO with 48 goals scored in eight games and only one conceded. The improvement was also reflected in the FIFA ranking, with the entry for the first time in the 'Top 10' and now it is the seventh, fifth European only surpassed by Sweden (2), France (3), the Netherlands (3) and Germany. (4).

All this with a very recognizable eleven and that Vilda hardly changed. On the other hand, now the man from Madrid will have to move his slate well to compensate in the best possible way for the casualties of Alexia Putellas and Jennifer Hermoso.

For the gap left by the one from Mollet del Vallès, her best options could be to put her theoretical natural substitute, Irene Guerrero, a player with a long distance, a good shot and a good arrival as she showed in the friendly against Australia, for giving the alternative to Tere Abelleira, more pivot than midfielder, or for delaying Mariona Caldentey, more used to playing on the wing, but with a lot of talent. The duel against Finland will solve her plans.

All in all, Vilda still has eight almost 'fixed' players for an eleven that is already perfectly known. In goal, the starter is Sandra Paños from Alicante, while the defensive line will be formed in the center by Irene Paredes and a Mapi León at a high level, with Ona Batlle consecrated on the right side and Leila Ouahabi, despite losing prominence in the final stretch with Barça, on the left thanks to his physical strength and good footing. Ivana Andrés and Andrea Pereira are the alternatives to the centrals, and Shei García and Olga Carmona on the wings.

In the center of the field, where the football of the 'Roja' is 'cooked', Patri Guijarro and a rising Aitana Bonmatí are fixed, while above it seems that the friendly against Italy shed some light on what the coach intends. Esther González was the starter accompanied by Mariona Caldentey and Lucía García and this trio could repeat against Finland, although there are many more options, increased by the return of Amaiur Sarriegi, a player with a lot of goals.

Athenea del Castillo, a player with great overflow on the wing, Marta Cardona, who has the coach's full confidence despite not having had continuity in the season due to injuries, and the talented Claudia Pina, the youngest of the team (20 years old) and who finished the season at a high level, they also await their opportunity.