Spain beats England 1-0 to win its first ever Women’s World Cup

By AP 20 August 2023, 3:24 pm

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Spain's Olga Carmona celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the final of Women's World Cup soccer between Spain and England at Stadium Australia in Sydney, Australia, August 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

SYDNEY — Spain has won its first Women’s World Cup championship with a 1-0 victory over England.

The win for Spain in just its third World Cup appearance prevents the Lionesses — the reigning European champions — from bringing the trophy back to England for the first time since 1966. England’s men’s team won the nation’s only World Cup that year.

Spain won on a goal from Olga Carmona in the 29th minute. The left back scored in back-to-back World Cup games for Spain, which has a tournament-best 18 goals in this World Cup, and became just the seventh player in tournament history to score in both the semifinals and the final.

Spain, which had a near mutiny last year when 15 players quit the national team, was the more aggressive team in the final and pressed the entire game.

The England loss is the first this tournament for coach Sarina Wiegman, who was hired in late 2021 as the team’s first non-British manager. It is also Wiegman’s second consecutive loss in the finale.

She is the only coach in the history of the tournament to take two nations to the final; Wiegman was coach of the Netherlands when the Dutch lost 2-0 to the United States in 2019.

The finale guaranteed a first-time Women’s World Cup winner as neither Spain or England had ever hoisted the trophy.