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FOOTBALL

Spain tame England to win Women’s World Cup for first time

Spain won the Women's World Cup for the first time in their history with skipper Olga Carmona sweeping in the only goal for a deserved 1-0 victory over England in Sunday's final.

Spain tame England to win Women's World Cup for first time
Spain's players celebrate after winning the Australia and New Zealand 2023 Women's World Cup final football match between Spain and England at Stadium Australia in Sydney on August 20, 2023. Photo: WILLIAM WEST/AFP.

In front of a crowd of nearly 76,000 at Stadium Australia in Sydney, Spain were the more accomplished side and had more chances, including missing a second-half penalty.

Spain’s triumph is vindication for Jorge Vilda and the Spanish football federation, who stuck with the coach even after 15 players last year said they no longer wanted to represent their country under him.

England coach Sarina Wiegman, who has now suffered back-to-back defeats in the final, and her European champions can have few complaints.

Spain are the fifth team to lift the World Cup since the tournament began in 1991, joining outgoing champions the United States, Germany, Norway and Japan.

In front of Spain’s Queen Letizia, defender Carmona scored what turned out to be the winner, rampaging from left-back to thrash the ball in low and hard on 29 minutes.

Wiegman had resisted the temptation to recall Chelsea attacker Lauren James after her two-match ban and kept faith with the team that beat co-hosts Australia 3-1 in the semi-finals.

Playing in their blue second kit, England had the first sniff of a chance in the fifth minute but Lauren Hemp shot weakly at goalkeeper Cata Coll.

There was little to choose between them in the opening exchanges before both teams had golden opportunities on the quarter-hour mark.

First, Manchester City forward Hemp struck the bar with a curler that had Coll well beaten.

Spain went up the other end and should have scored but Salma Paralluelo — in for Alexia Putellas — missed the ball in the six-yard box.

Then Alba Redondo hit a first-time strike straight at goalkeeper Mary Earps with the England goal gaping.

Spain’s players celebrate with the trophy after winning the Australia and New Zealand 2023 Women’s World Cup final football match between Spain and England at Stadium Australia in Sydney on August 20, 2023. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP)
 

Hemp then had another tame effort saved, before the game was momentarily held up in the 24th minute when a spectator darted on to the pitch before being wrestled away by security.

Five minutes later Spain, who had never won a knockout game at the Women’s World Cup until this tournament and had lost 4-0 to Japan in the group phase, were ahead.

Mariona Caldentey slid in an inch-perfect pass for Carmona, who came flying unmarked down the left before lashing the ball into the bottom corner.

Vilda, who recalled three of the 15 mutineers for the World Cup, did not even raise a smile on the sidelines.

England looked uncharacteristically rattled and the 19-year-old Barcelona attacker Paralluelo, who was a constant threat, shaved the post with the last kick of the half.

Hermoso fails from spot

Wiegman, who suffered agony in the final four years ago when her Netherlands team lost 2-0 to the United States, made a double change at the break.

James and Chloe Kelly replaced Rachel Daly and Alessia Russo as Wiegman switched from a back-five to a flat back-four.

But it was Spain who nearly doubled their lead almost straight after half-time, Caldentey dinking inside and forcing Earps to turn the ball around the post.

Hemp was booked for clipping Laia Codina as England’s frustration mounted.

Midfield schemer Aitana Bonmati, who has been one of the players of the tournament and was one of the three refuseniks recalled by Vilda, fired narrowly over Earps’s bar.

With 20 minutes left, Spain were awarded a penalty when VAR was called into action and, after a long review, Keira Walsh was judged to have handled the ball in the box.

Jennifer Hermoso stepped up but her penalty was weak and Earps saved comfortably to keep England just about alive.

Officials indicated 13 minutes of injury time at the end, but if anything, it was Spain who looked the more likely to score as England’s dreams of a first World Cup melted away.

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TOURISM

Barcelona to get rid of all tourist rental flats ‘by 2028’

The mayor of Barcelona announced on Friday that the city will bring an end to 10,000 tourist flats by 2028 simply by not renewing licences.

Barcelona to get rid of all tourist rental flats 'by 2028'

Barcelona city council has pledged to ‘eliminate’ the more than 10,000 tourist flats in the Catalan capital.

Jaume Collboni, the city’s Socialist mayor, made the announcement during a press conference on Friday afternoon. 

The plan is to rid the city of all the tourist flats by November 2028 by not renewing any of the 10,101 licences in the city.

READ ALSO: ‘It kills the city’: Barcelona’s youth protest against mass tourism

They will instead be used for residential properties, applying a decree law approved by the Generalitat which regulates tourist housing.

“We’ve decided to go all out to convert them into residential housing,” Collboni said.

Collboni argued that the measure is a response to the growing difficulty of accessing affordable housing in Barcelona, where supply is scarce and rental prices have surpassed €1,100 per month on average.

According to figures cited during the press conference, the price of housing has increased by 68 percent in Barcelona in the last 10 years, while sales by just 38 percent. “The least that can be done is to think about how to provide more public and private housing. That means ‘more supply, more supply, more supply’,” Collboni said.

“The city has 10,000 tourist flats and we want to convert them into residential,” he added. “By November 2028, we want these 10,000 tourist flats to become residential. From 2029, the tourist flat as we know it today will disappear in Barcelona.”

Discontent among locals about the proliferation of short-term tourist rental flats has grown in the Catalan city in recent years. But it is not only in Barcelona. The sentiment has spread across the country in recent years, particularly in the post-pandemic period.

Protests have already been held in the Canary and Balearic Islands as well as Madrid and Barcelona, and demonstrations are planned in Málaga at the end of June.

READ ALSO: ‘It’s become unliveable’: Spain’s Málaga plans protests against mass tourism

A combination of dwindling rental market supply and rising prices, worsened by the rise in post-pandemic remote working, has meant that in many Spanish cities digital nomads and tourists dominate the city centres and price locals out of their own neighbourhoods.

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