Switzerland 1-5 Spain: Aitana Bonmati stars as La Roja thrash Switzerland to reach Women's World Cup quarter-finals

Spain cruised into the Women’s World Cup quarter-finals with a 5-1 win over Switzerland in Auckland.

Two goals from Aitana Bonmati helped La Roja get off to a flying start as they went in at the break 4-1 up, with Alba Redondo also finding the net and Laia Codina scoring at both ends.

Jennifer Hermoso added a fifth for Spain after the break as they made short work of the Swiss to set up a last-eight clash with the Netherlands or South Africa.

The result helped banish memories of a shocking 4-0 defeat to Japan in the final group game and earned the Spaniards a first-ever World Cup quarter-final appearance.

Jorge Vilda’s side have been free-scoring so far, finding the net 13 times, and they put on a show for a record-breaking crowd.

History was made at Eden Park as a turnout of 43,217 broke the attendance record for football in New Zealand.

“Today it was just difficult. You could see that Spain was a class better,” said Switzerland’s Ramona Bachmann.

“In the first 20-25 minutes we had a few good attacks, but we weren’t clever playing them through to the end. We wanted to be dangerous on the counter-attack, which worked out a few times in the first half, but not so much in the second.”

Barcelona midfielder Bonmati was the star of the show and opened the scoring after only five minutes, finding space with a neat touch before smashing home a left-footed shot.

But disaster struck when a wayward Codina backpass from almost halfway flew into the back of her own net as she misjudged the position of goalkeeper Catalina Coll.

It gave the Swiss, who topped their group ahead of Norway, New Zealand and the Philippines, a route back into the game, but the equilibrium didn’t last long as Redondo headed Spain back in front six minutes later.

Bonmati displayed more neat footwork in a tight area in the box to baffle the Swiss defence and net her second, before Codina made amends for her earlier error by knocking in a scrappy fourth from a corner on the brink of half-time.

The Swiss almost scored a goal of the tournament contender when a clever string of one-touch passes sent substitute Meriame Terchoun one-on-one, but her volleyed finish was weak and saved by Coll.

Spain put the result beyond doubt in the 70th minute when Redondo curled home a fine finish to punish sloppy defending from Switzerland.

It marked the second time of the 2023 Women’s World Cup that Spain have found the net five times, having beaten Zambia 5-0 in the group stage.

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