Our 3️⃣ points as England's Euros dream continues with Spain comeback | OneFootball

England sprung to life late on and showed their quality to pull off a stirring comeback win over Spain to reach the Euro semi-final.

This is what we made of it.

Wiegman’s subs made the difference

Sarina Wiegman was back on the bench after missing the final group stage game with Northern Ireland due to a positive COVID-19 test.

The England boss kept calm even though her side were behind as late as the 84th minute and her substitutes swung the balance of power in the match.

Not only did she bring on Chloe Kelly, Alessia Russo and Ella Toone with just over an hour gone but she recognised that full-back Rachel Daly was struggling and replaced her with Alex Greenwood.

It wasn’t long afterwards that Toone fired in the equaliser and from that point onwards there was a real shift in momentum towards England.

Although she likes a settled starting lineup, Wiegman kept calm and used the depth in her squad to her advantage.

England show their resilience

Going 1-0 down wasn’t part of the script for an England side that had scored a record-breaking 14 goals without reply in the group stages.

Although their talent was obvious, up until now their resilience hadn’t been tested. And at one point, it seemed as though they were heading out of the competition without so much as a whimper.

But when Toone had converted her chance, it seemed like the Lionesses remembered who they were and how they had arrived at the quarter-final.

Now that they are through, having come back from behind will serve as good experience for the semi-final for a side who simply hadn’t faced any adversity in their previous three matches.

Spain exit with heads held high

Let’s not forget that this Spain side were without their main source of firepower, as Jennifer Hermoso was ruled out before the tournament began and they’d had to deal with a knockout blow as star player Alexia Putellas was ruled out with an ACL tear on the eve of the first match.

They had come to face England with a game plan and for 84 minutes, it worked.

Aitana Bonmatí controlled large parts of the game with her metronomic passing and Spain defended well too.

Perhaps boss Jorge Vilda should’ve reacted better to England’s substitutes but his side truly gave an excellent account of themselves, having picked themselves up after a 2-0 loss to Germany in their final group stage match.