England and Spain set to duke it out once again

England and Spain set to duke it out once again

Wembley Stadium welcomes world champions Spain as they take on the current European champions England in what has been the major rivalry in international women's football in recent years.

England and Spain have faced each other at the last three major tournaments – Euro 2022, World Cup 2023, and Euro 2025 – as well as facing off twice last year in the Nations League which the Spanish went on to win.

Indeed, all three of those major tournaments have been won by either of those two teams (England's two European Championships versus a World Cup and Nations League for Spain) with no other nation getting a look in.

The games have been typically fiercely contested, close affairs. In the last five minutes from Euro 2022 until now, each side has won twice each while a 1-1 draw at Euro 2025 had to be decided by a penalty shoot-out in favour of the Lionesses.

So while there have been two major finals and a quarter-final in recent times between these two teams, the upcoming double header, starting on Tuesday evening, certainly isn't meaningless.

Only one team can automatically qualify from Group A2 and guarantee a spot at the 2027 World Cup to be held in Brazil with the other having to go through via a play-off against one of the eight teams progressing from League C. Naturally, whether it's England or Spain they would be expected to qualify regardless but it's better to avoid a nasty surprise.

And it will almost certainly be England or Spain who finish in the top two of this group. Indeed, both have won their opening games against Ukraine and Iceland comfortably and are only separated by goal difference (England's +7 to Spain's +5).

So while these two games aren't quite as significant as past encounters they will give us a barometer to how these two teams are evolving.

In particular, Sarina Wiegman's team has had to change over the last few years with the international retirements of some high profile players (Millie Bright, Mary Earps, et al.) and bring in a younger generation of players, the likes of Laura Blindkilde Brown, Lucia Kendall, Keira Barry, and 17-year-old Erica Meg Parkinson all involved this time out.

The big question will be can the current generation compete with Spain's best?