Spain final agony for Spurs Women

Spurs Women suffered a penalty shoot-out defeat against Athletic Club (Bilbao) in the final of the Ramon de Carranza Trophy on Wednesday night in Cadiz.

Angela Addison’s strike in the first half gave us a 1-0 lead, but an injury-time equaliser from Lucia Garcia forced the game into penalties.

Substitute goalkeeper Chloe Morgan made two brilliant penalty saves, but Coral-Jade Haines’ decisive spot-kick was fired wide as the Primera División side won 5-4 in the shoot-out.

After securing our place in the final of the pre-season tournament – held on the west coast of Spain – with a 2-1 victory over Real Betis on Tuesday (13 August), we made seven changes to the starting line-up which saw new signing Kit Graham make her first start for the Club.

We broke the deadlock after 11 minutes following some great work from Ashleigh Neville in the build-up – the defender regained possession before she burst forward and played a through ball to Addison who made no mistake with her finish from close range.

With 94 minutes on the clock, Morgan made a save to deny Erika Vazquez from long range but could only palm the ball in Garcia’s direction who converted the equaliser.

Ria Percival, Gemma Davison and Addison scored their spot-kicks but Sophie Mclean, Anna Filbey and Haines were unfortunate not to convert theirs as Bilbao were crowned winners.

The squad return to London today (15 August) and will face Arsenal next in a pre-season friendly at Boreham Wood’s Meadow Park on Sunday 25 August, kick-off 2pm.

Match data

Goals: Athletic Club – Garcia 90+4; Spurs Women – Addison 11.

Venue: Ramon de Carranza Stadium.