Football: Quotes: Soccer-Women’s World Cup: Reaction to Spain beating England in the final

(Reuters) – Following is reaction to Spain beating England 1-0 in the Women’s World Cup final on Sunday to win the tournament for the first time:

SPAIN’S AITANA BONMATI – GOLDEN BALL WINNER

“I’m up in the air right now, I don’t have any words for this moment. It is unbelievable, I’m so proud because we did a great tournament. We suffered but also we enjoy it and we deserve it,” she told the BBC.

“Everyone knew the goal at the beginning when preparing for the tournament. Everyone is competitive, everyone has a strong mentality to win. We’ve been working a lot of years for this moment and we have it, we have the trophy.”

ENGLAND MANAGER SARINA WIEGMAN

“I think everyone has watched an incredible game, a very open game with both teams wanting to play football,” she told BBC Radio.

“I thought that Spain were a little bit better than us today and they had a great tournament, so congratulations to them.”

KING CHARLES

“While I know how sore today’s result must be, let none of you feel defeated, for to have reached the finals at all is an immense tribute to your skill, determination and team spirit in the finest sporting tradition,” he said in a statement.

“More than that, though, it will serve as an inspiration for generations to come – and, for that, your place in the history books is assured.”

SPAIN’S ALL-TIME TOP SCORER JENNIFER HERMOSO

“We had spent many days trying to imagine it, but now … we are world champions. It’s the best feeling of my life,” she said in tears.

“We have played the football as we wanted but I still think we are not aware of what we have achieved.”

SPAIN COACH JORGE VILDA

“What we did is difficult to achieve. Very proud of this team, we have shown how we know how to play, that we know how to suffer, we have believed and we are world champions.

“Now let’s celebrate. I imagine how the excitement in Spain will be. We are going to celebrate here and we don’t know when it will end.”

ENGLAND CAPTAIN MILLIE BRIGHT

“This is really hard to take, we gave it everything … A massive amount of pride (for the team). The girls were unbelievable.

“We had a lot of critics, a few lost belief in us, but we never stopped believing. Sometimes football goes for you, sometimes against you.

“We played in a World Cup final. In a few weeks we will appreciate this day, but we want to be winners.”

ENGLAND’S MARY EARPS – GOLDEN GLOVE WINNER

“In a couple of weeks, when the emotion has settled down, we will probably be able to look back and feel proud. It is no small feat to get to a World Cup final,” she told BBC Radio.

“But we are very competitive people, we came here to win the game and get a gold medal, not a silver one.”

(Compiled by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)