Spain's forward Salma Paralluelo and Duth defender Ona Batlle fight for the ball during the Australia and New Zealand 2023 Women's World Cup quarter-final football match between Spain and the Netherlands at Wellington Stadium. Spain won 2-1 on Aug. 11, 2023.GRANT DOWN/AFP/Getty Images
Salma Paralluelo scored deep in extra time to give Spain a 2-1 win over Netherlands on Friday and send the sixth-ranked nation into the semi-finals of the Women’s World Cup for the first time.
The teenager struck in the 111th minute of a tight knockout match between European soccer heavyweights whose men’s teams already have storied World Cup histories.
Netherlands lost the final to the United States in France four years ago, and now both teams have exited the tournament.
The 19-year-old Paralluelo made her break down the left off a pass from Jenni Hermosa, beat Aniek Nouwen with a swivel, pivoted momentarily and from a difficult angle launched a left-foot shot into the back of the net for the winner.
“It’s important for everyone,” said Paralluelo, who was player of the match. “We have succeeded. We have fought until the end. We have believed. It means for me, it was a unique moment, great euphoria to have lived through that and I’m extremely happy.”
Paralluelo started in all of Spain’s previous matches at the tournament; this was her first entry from the bench.
The coach “told me to make sure I was open for the passes, that I could be in the right spaces and to compete, compete as much as I could,” she said. “I had that opportunity and I was lucky to score, so I’m very happy.”
Paralluelo was a track star before she turned to football, specializing in the 400 metres.
“It’s a great day for Spanish women’s football,” coach Jorge Vilda said. “And in four days’ time, they will have the opportunity to see the Spanish team in the semi-finals.”
“To date we’ve reached somewhere we’ve never reached before, and done it playing a good game as well, with a team that is convinced that we can go even further.”
Netherlands defender Stefanie van der Gragt had turned from villain to hero in the last 10 minutes of regular time. She conceded a penalty for hand ball in the 81st minute which Mariona Caldentey converted to give Spain a 1-0 lead. Then, right at the start of stoppage time, she timed a run brilliantly from Victoria Pelova’s through ball and added a polished finish to level the scores.
One on one with Spain keeper Cata Coll, she fired her shot precisely into the left side of the net for the 147th goal of this tournament, a record for the Women’s World Cup.
This was always going to be van der Gragt’s last global tournament before retirement.
At first it appeared likely her career would end on a cruel note, when a cross hit her outstretched right arm as she patrolled the edge of the area and Spain was awarded a penalty after a VAR review.
Caldentey placed the ball on the spot, took a few steps back in a hushed stadium, paused, shuffled then sent keeper Daphne Van Domselaar the wrong with her low shot into the left corner.
Then van der Gragt equalized to send the match into extra time.
It was Lineth Beerensteyn who went closest in the second period of extra time. Apparently tireless, she broke away but sent her shot across goal and later fired over the bar from close range.
“As you can see we are all celebrating,” Vilda said. “We continue to make history. It was a game more difficult than it could have been.”
Dutch coach Andries Jonker said his team had proved in the tournament that it deserved to be among the top teams in the world.
“We did our best. We tried to camouflage our weaknesses and show out strengths, but there’s only one solution: You have to play forward, you have to get the ball, stay on the ball, make the game,” he said. What we showed during this tournament, sometimes it was fantastic, sometimes it was less than that.”
Just over 32,000 watched the match, including New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipikins and FIFA president Gianni Infantino on a sunny but cold afternoon in New Zealand’s capital. Fresh snow fell overnight on the peaks of the Orongorongo ranges which stood out against the blue sky across the harbour from Sky Stadium. A 5.6 magnitude earthquake rattled Wellington an hour before kickoff.
The Dutch squad has been the biggest travellers at this World Cup. Based at Tauranga in New Zealand’s North Island, they played in Wellington, then in Dunedin on the South Island, travelled to Australia for the round of 16 and back to Wellington for Friday’s quarter-final.
Now they have one more trip – home.