Spain – Canada, live

Spain women’s national football team returns to action in a friendly match at the Estadio Francisco de la Guera in the Extremaduran city of Almendralejo against an important rival like Canada, against whom it begins a new journey, targeting 2025.

After a calendar year of almost no rest and a lot of stress, both mental and physical, with the World Cup title in August 2023 and fourth place in a historic participation in the Olympic Games in Paris last summer, the Spanish players had a short but well-deserved rest, in the international level, and now they are putting “Reds” again, although already without so many obligations.

Spain have been hooked on an unusual carousel of matches since the start of the World Cup, with controversy following the new Nations League and the Final Four, which it also won, qualifying for the 2025 European Championship and, as the icing on the cake, the Olympic dream. But the final was not as pleasant as one might have expected, and the reigning world champion, a clear contender for the podium at the competition in the French capital, finished with a bitter and painful fourth place.

Now the North American team, ranked sixth in the world rankings and which will provide a good test for Montse Thome’s side, is somewhat refreshed from previous tournaments and with the significant loss of one of their best players, Aitana Bonmati, whom the Asturian gave peace.

The eleven will not include other theoretically “fixed” players such as central defender Irene Paredes or striker Salma Paralluelo, who is injured, nor other regulars such as Madrid players Oyhane Hernandez, Eva Navarro and Misa Rodriguez, while Laia Aleixandri noticed discomfort in the session before the accident with the Canadians and Marion Caldenti also missed the first session. In addition, a little later the “Americans” Jenny Hermoso, Lucia Garcia and Ana Tejada, one of the newcomers, joined.