A new record crowd for a football match in New Zealand - 43,217 fans, the third time the record has been broken in sixteen days! - saw a sparkling Spanish performance as they swept Switzerland aside 5-1 at Eden Park on August 5 to march into the last eight at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Finals. The game got off to a scorching start, with both teams threatening their opponent's net inside the first three minutes, but in the fifth minute, Spain did more than threaten - they opened the scoring. Salma Paralleulo broke down the left before picking out Alba Redondo with a cross. Her header was turned onto the post by Gaelle Thalmann, with the rebound eventually finding its way back to Redondo. Crowded out, she turned the ball back to Aitana Bonmati, who side-stepped a challenge before rifling a fifteen-yard drive through the crowded goalmouth and beyond the unsighted figure of Thalmann. "La Roja" threatened again five minutes later, Esther Gonzalez's near post header landing on the roof of the net, the striker having been picked out by Teresa Abelleira's measured cross. Within a minute, Spain had scored again - a goal like no other! Laia Codina never looked up before playing the ball back to debutant goalkeeper Cata Coll, the one surprise in the Spanish line-up. She was in position all right, anticipating a back-pass which wouldn't be directed at the target, just as you're taught when you're a youngster - "If you've got to pass the ball back to your goalkeeper, never direct your pass at the goal". But in the pressure of the first knockout phase encounter at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Finals, Codina forgot those basics, instead directing a forty-five yard back-pass beyond Coll and into the gaping net behind her - 1-1, to the undisguised delight of the Swiss, with the central defender, contrastingly, in turmoil. Her team-mates rallied round her, and responded in the only way Spain know, the way they know best - play the opposition off the park! Cue an absolute clinic in possession football - passing, movement, combinations, angles, situational awareness … an absolute joy for purists to behold. The beautiful game, played beautifully. In the midst of it all, chances - lots of them. By the end of the match, Spain had fired twenty-five shots in anger, the majority in the thirty minutes before half-time, with Codina eager to make amends for her blemish on the quarter hour, flying in to meet Abelleira's corner only to direct her header over the bar from inside the six yard box. Seconds later, a Jennifer Hermoso cross allowed Gonzalez to produce some delightful skill in the area to beat two opponents. Her shot was blocked, but Spain's intensity was irresistible, and it was no surprise to see them regain the lead in the seventeenth minute. How they did it, however - super goal! After a delightful interchange on the left was thwarted by the Swiss defence, the ball was cleared to Ona Batlle, who evaded a challenge, checked then crossed beyond the leaping figure of Bonmati to Redondo, ghosting in behind her. The striker guided a stooping header beyond Thalmann into the far corner - 2-1. The Swiss had no response to this, Spain producing tantalising moves aplenty, with one in particular, in the 27th minute, deserving of better fate. It was one of those moves which involves virtually the entire team, and culminated in Hermoso and Bonmati combining to tee up Abelleira, whose swerving twenty-five yarder arced narrowly over the crossbar. Seconds after Nadine Riesen had diverted a goalbound Bonmati shot to safety, Spain went desperately close to increasing their lead in the 33rd minute, Thalmann denying them with a quite stupendous save to keep her country in contention. Abelleira's corner was punched out by Thalmann to Bonmati, who struck a superb first-time volley hard and low through the crowded goalmouth towards

the bottom right-hand corner of Thalmann's net. The goalkeeper flung herself backwards to somehow turn the ball past the post - one of the saves of the Finals, no question. But she couldn't keep everything out, and ten minutes before half-time, Spain scored a quite wonderful third goal. Gonzalez and Paralluelo combined on the left, the latter crossing for Redondo, whose flick ricocheted off a defender to Bonmati. Her sharp turn took out half the Swiss defence - it literally parted like the Red Sea in front of her - and through the gap she confidently steered the ball into an empty net from fifteen yards. A sumptuous strike, well worth the admission money itself, and the vast majority of the record 43217-strong crowd roared in appreciation of its quality. Spain, finished? Far from it. Irene Paredes headed across the face of goal from a Paralluelo corner before a beautifully weighted lob by Hermoso found Gonzalez inside the six-yard box, only for the striker to be denied the goal she coveted by Julia Stierli's timely intervention. On the stroke of half-time, any hopes Switzerland harboured of mounting a second half comeback were dashed by a fourth Spanish goal. Abelleira's corner landed in the heart of the goalmouth, and as it bounced off players from both nations, Codina saw her chance and prodded the ball home from six yards before racing off in sheer delight. Rare indeed are the occasions when a player has scored at both ends in the same half of a World Cup Finals match, gender regardless. The Spanish central defender added her name to a short list with this self-redeeming goal to give her country a 4-1 half-time lead. Switzerland rang the changes at half-time, and enjoyed an improved second half showing as a result, but the damage had long been done, and their opponents were eager to inflict more. Paralluelo unleashed a 52nd minute shot which reared up in front of the diving figure of Thalmann, who did well to adjust and divert the effort round the post. The Swiss 'keeper then denied Gonzalez three minutes later, after Bonmati and Redondo had combined on the right. Switzerland instantly launched a counter-attack - they'd clearly been watching Japan's success against Spain in this regard - and were nearly rewarded, Ana Maria Crnogorcevic's pass presenting Meriame Terchoun with a great chance to reduce the deficit, only for the substitute to shoot straight at Coll. Spain heeded the warning, made a couple of changes, and did what they tend to do - scored another goal, this time with twenty minutes remaining to make it 5-1. A Riesen clearance was pounced on by Bonmati, who threaded the ball through to Hermoso. She swept the ball home beyond Thalmann into the far corner of the net - contest over! Chances were few and far between in the time remaining as a string of substitutions were made, but Spain engineered those of note, Paralluelo working a one-two with Alexia Putellas on the left before delivering an eightieth minute cross to the far post, where Eva Navarro was flying in to meet it. Thalmann just managed to paw the ball to safety on this occasion, then tipped away a twenty-five yarder from Navarro seconds later as Putellas inspired the Spanish during the remaining minutes, alas without further reward. Their 5-1 scoreline was more than satisfactory, however - quarter-finals, here they come! Switzerland:     Thalmann; Aigbogun (Calligaris, 46), Maritz, Stierli (booked, 73), Riesen (Marti, 84); Sow (Terchoun, 46), Waelti, Reuteler (Mauron, 46); Piubel (Humm, 75), Crnogorcevic, Bachmann Spain:          Coll; Batlle, Paredes, Codina, Hernandez; Bonmati (Guerrero, 77), Abelleira (Perez, 64), Hermoso (Putellas, 77); Redondo, Gonzalez (Navarro, 64), Paralluelo (Del Castillo, 84) Referee:     Cheryl Foster (Wales)