Has Athenea Del Castillo Already Won the Best Goal of the Women’s Euros?

Jingwei Zhao

In Spain’s latest match of the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025, they cruised past Italy 3-1, and the main talking point of that match was the second goal. Italy’s Elisabetta Olivero had just put them ahead with a well-aimed shot in the box.

However, Spain responded lightning fast. Just four minutes later, they started advancing into the Italians’ side of the field. 24-year-old Real Madrid forward Athenea del Castillo started dribbling dangerously close to the Italian goal. She pushed past three defenders seemingly with ease. Del Castillo then spotted her teammate Alexia Putellas, a two-time Ballon d’Or Féminin winner, and quickly sent a pass in her direction.

With a cheeky backheel flick, Putellas passed the ball around another Italian defender back to Del Castillo. Del Castillo fired instantly, and the ball soared into the back of the net. Fans erupted immediately, and Spain was level.

Spain managed to put two more goals into Italy’s net. The second goal came right after the end of half-time, as Patricia Guijarro rocketed a shot from outside the box. It hit the goal post and bounced into the goal. The final goal of the match occurred during added time, as Esther González found the back of the net in the 91st minute with a well-placed assist from a teammate. Although both of those goals were superb themselves, all anyone could talk about was Del Castillo’s rifling goal.

Her goal could already be the best of the tournament, since no one has come close yet. As of now, her only competition for that accomplishment is her own teammate, Claudia Pina. She remained collected, her goal against Belgium clocked in at 98.6 km per hour as it hit the top corner. However, the beautiful assist from Putellas does bestow extra points to Del Castillo.

In the past season, Del Castillo had been training at Real Madrid to shoot using her left foot. She usually plays on the left side of the field, but has recently started playing on the right. She is naturally right-footed, so her goal has been to master her control with both feet. For her confident shot against Italy, she made the split-second decision to shoot with her right foot.

“I saw Ale [Putellas] and I knew she was going to give it back to me, but I didn’t know how,” Del Castillo said to a reporter. “I didn’t know she was going to give it back to me so well. I had a moment of doubt, whether to shoot with my right or left foot, and in the end I decided to play it safe with my right foot (and aim for) the far post.”

After the match, Del Castillo was asked by a reporter if she watched the goal herself. She replied no, and pulled up the video on the journalist’s mobile, and pressed play. “Ah, it is better now than when I saw it live! I didn’t think it was that well taken!” she remarked.

At a conference before the match, Del Castillo admitted that she likes to read to take her mind off football. However, when she was asked what book she was currently reading, she failed to name the title. With such an exhilarating performance during that match against Italy, no one can think she will be going back to reading books soon.