England Women hailed as their ‘best ever’ by Spain manager Jorge Vilda

The Spain manager Jorge Vilda has hailed Sarina Wiegman’s European title rivals as the “best England team ever” before their Arnold Clark Cup meeting at Carrow Road on Sunday afternoon.

“We’ve prepared well for this game, they’ve been training really well and we’ve been doing exercises based on dealing with high intensity opponents,” said Vilda. “I personally believe that this is perhaps the best England team ever. They’ve got plenty of youth in the side, players who play with coverage.”

England host Spain in the second round of the inaugural friendly tournament that includes Germany and Canada and Vilda believes it is “potentially the best game of the tournament”.

For the three European teams it is an opportunity to test players and formations before this summer’s Euros, while for the Olympic champions Canada they can ramp up their preparations for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next year.

Spain conceded in the 88th minute of their opening match against Germany to deny them three points against the eight-time European champions at the Riverside. While Millie Bright’s stunning volley in a blistering first half for England against Canada was undone by a shift of momentum in the second that led to the Manchester City forward Janine Beckie’s equaliser.

The rise of Spain on the international stage has been rapid and fuelled by impressive development of the all-conquering Barcelona, with 10 of the 22 player squad and nine of the starting XI against Germany from the Champions League holders. “They have developed very well. We know they have a lot of Barcelona players and they’re very tactical and technical,” said Wiegman, who led the Netherlands to the Euro 2017 title on home soil. “They tied the first game, but