Spain beat England 4-0 to move one step closer to automatic qualification for next year’s Women’s World Cup final, with Germany booking their place thanks to a comfortable 2-0 home win over Norway in the penultimate round of European qualifiers on Friday.
With the top teams from each of the four A groups qualifying automatically, Germany’s victory gave them an unassailable four-point lead over Norway in Group A4 with one match remaining, while Spain and England are both on 12 points at the top of Group A3.
England’s hopes of securing a place with a win over Mallorca were quickly dashed, with Patri Guijarro putting the Spaniards ahead in the 19th minute and Alexia Putellas making it 2–0 before half-time.
There seemed to be nothing England could do to stop the Spanish juggernaut, with Putellas scoring a second goal ten minutes after the break and Claudio Pina putting the icing on the cake with a goal from a brilliant pass from Aitana Bonmati to make it 4-0.
England retain a chance to qualify directly, but will need to achieve a better result than Spain did in their last away match against Iceland when they host Ukraine next Tuesday.
There was late drama in Group A2 when Ireland’s Amber Barrett scored a goal in the 90th minute to seal a 3-2 home win over the Netherlands to move above the Netherlands into second place in the group, one point behind leaders France, who defeated Poland 2-0.
The Irish play France in their final match in Grenoble, while the Netherlands take on Poland at home.
Earlier, Pernille Harder came off the bench to score the winner for Denmark as they defeated neighboring Sweden 2-1, ending the Swedes’ hopes of direct qualification.
The Danes top Group A1 with 11 points ahead of their last match against Serbia, while second-placed Italy, who are three points behind the leaders, host Sweden next.
Published on June 6, 2026
