Spain’s Laia Aleixandri: ‘We’re seeing how best to hurt England’

“It was here,” Laia Aleixandri says. “Right here.” The Spain midfielder stands on the grass, boats floating gently by on the Thames, St George’s cross fluttering from the roof of the 13th-century manor house across the lawn, and smiles. It is the perfect place to paint and, a lover of art, Aleixandri has brought her canvases with her, an escape from it all. It is also the perfect place to play and, it turns out, where it all began. “On this actual pitch,” she says.

It was a revelation to her, too. The last time England hosted a European Championship, they were based at Bisham Abbey, just as they had been when they won the 1966 World Cup. The traditional home of the national team, this time it is their quarter-final opponents Spain who are there. Aleixandri, 22 next month, did not know its history, and did not remember that it was part of her own history too, the field where she played her first game for Spain – until things fell into place a fortnight ago.

“My debut was with the under-17s, in 2014, 2015 and, if I remember right, we drew 1-1 and I scored. There were a few of us from the current team who played that day: Patri Guijarro, Aitana Bonmatí, Lucía García, Ona [Batlle] too, and when we got here to train this time we said: ‘Hang on, this looks very familiar…’ Until we got here we had no idea and so, when we saw it, it was like: ‘Oh wow, long time no see.’”

This may be the last time she sees it for a while too, unless they can get through their quarter-final on Wednesday night – and it is their hosts who stand before them. As in 1996, England face Spain. “It will be very competitive: you see that just in the results, but we’re analysing them closely,” says Aleixandri. “They’ve scored a lot of goals, started games