Women's EURO 2025: Spain coach Montserrat Tomé on living up to favourites tag

Having won the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2023 and the first edition of the UEFA Women's Nations League in 2024, it is no great surprise that Spain are being regarded as one of the favourites to claim the top prize at UEFA Women's EURO 2025.

Assistant to Jorge Vilda with that World Cup-winning team, former Barcelona and Spain midfielder Montserrat Tomé has been in sole command since 2023 and senses that her side are not cowed by their own reputation as they prepare for action in Switzerland.

On the mood in the Spain camp

Before our campaign gets going, one of the objectives I set myself was to enjoy it. We've been preparing for this tournament all year. It's right around the corner now, and we've worked very hard to be ready. The team is doing well, we are at the right stage, preparing ourselves with tough training sessions.

Montserrat Tomé with the Women's Nations League trophyUEFA via Getty Images

On the pressure of being regarded as tournament favourites

Rather than pressure, I feel like it is our job. We do something we enjoy doing, and due to the team's abilities, the challenge is to go for it all. This is a sport and, ultimately, there are 16 national teams that prepare themselves very well, that have good abilities, and anything can happen in a game, right?

Our absolute responsibility is to work hard, to give it our all, to be as well prepared as possible for the first day, and from then on, for the team to grow during the tournament and the games. So rather than feeling pressure, we feel it's our duty to do our job properly and look to compete for everything that's in our reach.

On the Barcelona core to her side

We have an important number of Barça players. It's a team that has always been very successful, one of the very top teams in the Spanish league, often winning the league title, and even though they didn't win the [UEFA Women's] Champions League final, they had won consecutive Champions League titles on the European stage.

So we use those players very frequently, but there's a different dynamic here. The national team is always different from a club side. These players adapt very well to the demands of the national team, when it comes to gelling with players from other clubs, with different styles of play, and all of them understand that the national team has its own playing style and that they've been chosen because we feel that they have the ability to implement Spain's style of play. When they're here, we don't think about which club they're from, neither do they, and it's great to see how quickly they adapt to our demands.

On Spain's main title rivals

I feel that France have improved significantly throughout the year. We played a friendly against them and their game has evolved since then. They're a team with a very high attacking potential with [Kadidiatou] Diani, with [Marie-Antoinette] Katoto, players such as [Selma] Bacha who links up in attack. Their full-backs are always very athletic.

Germany are always there or thereabouts, they also had a great Nations [League] campaign, and they are a team that looks to defend and then make use of quick transitions. England are also there, we've faced them very recently in the Nations [League], and they're the current European champions, so we always have to consider them.