Spanish Women’s Football Captain: The Challenge in Winning Gold at This Tournament Lies in Teams Bunkering Against Us

In the quarterfinals of the Olympic women’s football tournament, Spain will face Colombia. In an interview with FIFA, the Spanish women’s football captain and two-time FIFA Best Player, Putellas, pointed out that the difficulty in aiming for the grand slam lies in breaking down teams that play defensively against them.

As the top favorites to win, if Spain progresses all the way and claims the gold medal at the Paris Olympics, they would become the first team to simultaneously hold the titles of U-17 Women’s World Cup, U-20 Women’s World Cup, Women’s World Cup, and Olympic gold. For Spain to achieve this goal, they must rely on their captain, Putellas, a star player for Barcelona who is not only the team’s biggest name but also a “champion player” with eight Spanish league titles and three victories in the last four editions of the Women’s Champions League.

Putellas noted that during the Women’s World Cup, she was dealing with injuries and had not fully recovered, which led to performances below public expectations. However, the situation is different during these Olympics, as she stated, “I feel very good, physically I feel great, and I can give more than I did during the World Cup. Mentally, I feel very strong; I am confident and really enjoying such a big competition.”

Putellas pointed out that Spain cannot underestimate the difficulty of winning the gold medal: “These 12 participating teams are the best in the world and the best from each continent, so the competition is fierce, and winning every match is difficult. Sometimes, we struggle to find our rhythm, like we did against Brazil. I think this is mainly because, up to now, all the teams have chosen to defend densely against us, with hardly any space between the lines. I don’t think this is a coincidence. It’s hard to beat teams that use this kind of strategy. What should we do? We know clearly that we need to have a defined game plan and do our utmost to ensure its execution.”