by Dom Smith

SPAIN are a better team and a more enjoyable watch with Alexia Putellas as their midfield linchpin. But in football and in life, you can only control the controllables. Spain and their manager Jorge Vilda are helpless to cure the 28-year-old’s oh-so-cruel ACL injury sustained on the eve of Euro 2022.

When they took on the world’s 29^th ranked nation Finland in 27°C heat in Milton Keynes on Friday, the question on everyone’s lips was: can Spain challenge this summer without the world’s best player and current Ballon d’Or holder?

The rise of women’s football in Spain even since the 2019 World Cup has been mesmerising to watch. A generation of Spanish players — Putellas one of them — have reached their late-20s and thus their peak in the last few years. It’s allowed Barcelona Femeni to rise from near-obscurity to become the best team in the world. This season, they won all 30 of their Spanish league matches. Just as in the men’s game, Atletico de Madrid and Real Madrid are formidable forces, but Barca are in a league of their own.