Spain wins its first Women's World Cup.

Olga Carmona, Spain's captain, scored the game's only goal in the deserved 1-0 victory over England in the final on Sunday to give Spain its first Women's World Cup title.

 

Spain was the more skilled team and had more opportunities in front of a crowd of nearly 76,000 spectators at Sydney's Stadium Australia, including missing a second-half penalty.

With Spain's victory, Jorge Vilda and the Spanish football federation have been vindicated for sticking with the coach even after 15 players last year said they would no longer represent their country under his leadership.

Since the World Cup's inception in 1991, Spain has won it five times, joining previous champions Germany, the United States, Norway, and Japan.

In front of Spain's Queen Letizia, defender Carmona rampaged from left-back to thrash home the winner low and hard on 29 minutes.

"It was a really tough game, we knew it would be tricky, England have a great team, but I think it was our game," Carmona told Spanish national broadcasters La 1.

"We had the feeling we were going to do it."

England had the first sniff of a chance 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.

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, went ahead just before the half-hour mark.

With 20 minutes left, Spain were awarded a penalty after a long VAR review decided Keira Walsh had handled in the box.

But Jennifer Hermoso's penalty was weak and Earps saved comfortably to keep England hopes alive.

But despite 13 minutes of injury time, England rarely threatened and it was an assured Spain who held on comfortably, looking the more likely to score.