Montse Tomé: "Objective achieved. These players have made history"

A historic victory. A triumph over the Swiss that sees the Spanish national team through to the semi-finals of the Euros. And their head coach, Montse Tomé, expressed her complete satisfaction in the post-match press conference.

On how she experienced the match, the coach stated, “we’re in the quarter-finals, we’ve made it to the semi-finals, the girls have made history. These players are destined to go far with a consistently high level of performance. The whole stadium was against us, apart from a few Spaniards, and that was a challenge we already discussed. We had some difficulty in the first half, and in the second we broke the deadlock. We managed to keep a clean sheet, which was one of our aims. Objective achieved, and now to keep improving.”

🎙️ "Hemos mantenido la portería a cero y mostrado un rendimiento alto".

🗣️ @montse_tome, seleccionadora nacional.#WEURO2025 | #JugarLucharYGanar pic.twitter.com/385ccRDULX
— Selección Española Femenina de Fútbol (@SEFutbolFem) July 18, 2025

On Athenea’s performance, “we have 23 players and they all have a defined role that we decide when we announce the line-up. Athenea has been with the national team setup for a year and a bit, and we’ve had a lot of time together. In this match she had to come on in the second half, and she delivered what we asked of her. We were looking for width, depth, one-on-one play, and she’s in a good goalscoring run of form. Her defensive work also helps the team a lot. She’s embracing this role well, which doesn’t mean it will be forever. She’s a talented player with a very good attitude.”

Regarding Pina, “when she made that move I thought it was going in. When she gets the ball, starts dribbling, sets herself up, plants her left foot… it feels like it´s going to end in a goal. She’s been scoring goals like that all year and she has confidence in her ability. Pina doesn’t just bring goals, she brings so much more to Spain.”

Montse knew exactly what kind of team they were set to face: “I expected it to be a tight game. We weren’t sure if they’d use a back four or five, but they went with two deep lines of four. They’re physically strong with quick players up front, and they transition well and quickly. We expected a quarter-final like this, tight, combative, and one where we’d need to be patient.”

The most important thing is building and bouncing back in difficult moments: “Seeing the players singing, celebrating… that’s the objective for them and for all of us. All year we’ve been preparing to have a good tournament, a good Euros. The team started very well. The match against Portugal wasn’t easy and we won it well. The level of difficulty has increased with each opponent. This quarter-final, being a knockout match, if we didn’t win, we would be out. Playing with the crowd against us… it was a hard-fought victory. The team managed to overcome adversity and that gives strength and energy to go on.”

As for their possible semi-final opponent of either France or Germany, Montse didn’t want to speculate: “I’m not someone who says ‘I prefer one or the other’, I’ll wait to see who it is, we’ll watch it live. Whoever it is, we’ll start preparing for them.”