Spain beat Switzerland to compete in Women’s World Cup quarter-final
Spain crushed Switzerland 5-1 to reach the Women’s World Cup quarter-finals for the first time in their history on Saturday, with Japan and Norway doing battle to join them.
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Aitana Bonmati played a starring role with a brace and two assists in front of 43,217 fans at Eden Park in Auckland, a record crowd for a football match in New Zealand.
Spain will face the Netherlands or South Africa next.
Jorge Vilda’s side were beaten 4-0 by Japan in their final game of the group stage and the coach said the defeat had “left a mark” that his team would learn from.
He was true to his word. Spain outclassed a Swiss team who had reached the last 16 without conceding a goal but have now still never won a major tournament knockout game.
Bonmati’s early opener in the last-16 tie in Auckland was cancelled out by a spectacular own goal from Laia Codina, but Alba Redondo restored Spain’s lead and Bonmati scored again to make it 3-1.
Codina then made up for her error by getting her team’s fourth before the interval, and Jennifer Hermoso made it 5-1 in the second half.
The five-star performance justified Vilda’s decision to leave Alexia Putellas out of his starting line-up.
The reigning Ballon d’Or winner is still recovering fitness following a serious knee injury and could yet play a key role later in the tournament, but only made a cameo off the bench on Saturday.
Putellas was dropped as Vilda responded to the chastening Japan defeat by making five changes to his line-up.
Later Saturday, Japan and Norway play in Wellington for the right to meet Sweden or holders the United…
