Grace Clinton shows a glimpse of England’s future and helps banish ghosts against Spain | Jonathan Liew | OneFootball

The final whistle blows and players gather in the centre circle. Enmities are buried and old bonds reforged, pleasantries and shirts are swapped. Chloe Kelly is wrapped in the shirt of Leila Ouahabi. Likewise Jess Park and Laia Aleixandri. Sixty yards away, meanwhile, Grace Clinton is already on her lap of honour. She has resolved, with her characteristic speed of thought, that this shirt is going nowhere.

And if this was a game that seemed to arrive wreathed in ghosts of the past – Sydney, the pain, the bitter aftermath – then somehow it ended on a more optimistic, forward-looking note. This is an England team that have spent the past 18 months in varying states of entropy, labouring against the sort of opponents it should be swiping aside with a flick of the hand, torn between the Plan A that no longer works and the Plan B that does not yet exist.

But here – under the intermittent Wembley lights – was a blueprint of sorts. Old resilience and old muscle memory bolted on to a new engine. Spain may have been some way short of their world champion vintage, looking frankly a little drained by the physical and emotional labour of the past week, but for at least an hour here they rattled hard at the door.

And England withstood. More than that, really: they grew into the task, showed coherence and invention, rose to the level of opposition rather than shrinking from it. Spain had 57% possession but until the last 20 minutes the numbers were actually fairly equal.

Hannah Hampton muddied Sarina Wiegman’s goalkeeping dilemma with three world-class saves either side of half-time. Lauren James put in a proper shift at both ends of the pitch. Park’s winning goal was a moment she will never forget. Niamh Charles was quietly brilliant in defence.

But of all the players who advanced their case here, perhaps Clinton had the most successful night of all. Not so much for anything she did individually than because of how differently England functioned as a collective around her. Clinton at this still-early stage of her career is a vision, an idea, a thing not quite realised, but rich in potential and above all rich in possibility. Clinton opens new doors; unlocks new levels; offers England’s midfield a new and dizzyingly high ceiling.

And to understand the genesis of this game, you need to go back five days to the Algarve. There Portugal somehow managed to wrestle back control of the game by switching to 4-4-2 in the second half, which feels like an excellent meta joke at the expense of English football heritage. Clinton had a fine game all round. But late on she lost the run of Kika Nazareth and could only watch on as she lashed an equaliser into the top corner.

This, perhaps, is why Clinton was yet to be trusted by Wiegman in a big game. Her reputation as a player with abundant creative gifts but an occasional tendency to switch off in defence has followed her all the way from Everton, where she burned through the age groups.

So you can run the show against Austria and South Africa. But, as Ellen White put it on the BBC a few months ago: “She needs to be put against top midfield players.” Fine. Here’s Spain.

Perhaps wisely, England chose not to tangle with them high up the pitch. Instead they settled into a compact 4-4-2 without the ball, but in the areas where they chose to compete they did so with a relentless physicality. Clinton set the tone early on, stealing in and winning the ball from Aitana Bonmatí, hustling and shoving Mariona Caldentey, always looking over her shoulder, always covering the gaps.

But of course it was when England got the ball that we saw how Clinton changes things. She can pick a through ball or play a quick switch. She can use her sharp turn of pace to give and go and run beyond the back line.

But she can also make space for others: dropping into the right‑back space so that Lucy Bronze could surge forward, combining with Park, even taking the ball from Hampton to draw the Spanish press.

There has perhaps been an element of caution to Wiegman’s selection in recent months, a reluctance to rip up a formula that has served her so well. Georgia Stanway is injured and may still expect to take back her No 8 shirt.

But for perhaps the first time since 2023, there is a new vision here: a midfield game based on hard running, clever decoys, quick transitions from defence to attack. From Bristol to London to Manchester, Clinton has spent so much of her career being the future. This may just have been the night she became the present.

Header image: [Photograph: Alexander Canillas/SPP/Shutterstock]