A repeat of either the 2022 Euros final or the 2023 World Cup final was on the cards, and though Spain had long been the tournament favourites, they'd never reached a European final.
Germany had reached seven of the last eight finals
Germany on the other hand, had the experience of nine previous Women's Euros finals to draw upon, including seven of the last eight - six of which they'd won.
Despite this, it was the Spain starting XI on Wednesday that had made 165 collective appearances at major tournaments (World Cup/Euros), compared to just 93 collective appearances among the Germany starting line-up.
As might be expected, the first 10 minutes of the game was an exercise in both teams settling themselves down and working out areas of attack. The Spanish dominated the passing stats, with Irene Parades completing 26 passes in the opening 15 minutes.
No Germany player had made more than five, and the German team had just 33 collectively by that point in the match.
German central midfielder, Sara Dabritz, soon picked up her side's seventh yellow card of the tournament, and that was even before she'd made a single pass in the game.
Spain's domination of the ball continued, and both Paredes and tournament top-scorer, Esther Gonzalez, worked Ann-Katrin Berger in the German goal with shots on target.
Spain's 78% possession
Although the Spaniard's had 78% possession after half and hour, their opponents defence remained resolute and, as a result, Montse Tome's side had managed only five touches in the German box.
It meant a sense of deja vu was already creeping in given that in the last six meetings between the sides, Spain had been kept goalless in four and scored only one goal in the other two matches - none of which had been won.
Incessant Spanish pressure in the lead up to half-time saw another eight shots in the final six minutes of the half, three of which were on target and one hitting the woodwork.
The immovable object against the unstoppable force
Still, Germany held firm but were unable to be any sort of attacking threat. Indeed, not since the 2015 FIFA World Cup semi-final vs USA had they failed to have a shot on target in the first half of a major tournament game, whilst 12 shots from Spain in the opening 45 was the joint most by a team in a Euro semi-final since Germany played Sweden in 2013.
It's clear that things had to change after the break for Christian Wuck's side, and in the opening 15 minutes, the Germans had at least managed to up their possession stats to a more respectable 40%, whilst getting more shots away than their opponents (three to two).
Not unexpectedly, as the game wore on the pattern fell back into the immovable object against the irresistible force, and the question mark, if there was one, was who was going to fold first.
Germany excelled in the physical battle
Patri Guijarro was certainly doing her upmost to stop the game heading into an energy sapping extra 30 minutes, and her four chances created from open play was only beaten by Guijarro herself (five chances) back in a 2022 group stage game.
If there was one area where Spain were coming up short and as a consequence Germany were excelling, it was with regards to the more physical aspects of the game.
30 tackles attempted was 12 more than Spain could muster, and 15 won by the Germans was almost double that of their opponent.
In the latter stages of the 90 minutes, it appeared that both sides had settled for extra time, however, a late flurry from the Germans, who had four shots in a minute during injury-time, saw Cata Coll worked more than she had in the 93 minutes that had gone before.
Incredibly, another blank in normal time gave Spain an unwanted record of not having scored against Germany in a competitive fixture for 450 minutes.
Sophia Kleinherne pushed her side on as they began to tire, and she continued to get stuck in during extra time. Her seventh duel won was the most of any defenders on the pitch.
Berger finally beaten late in extra time
By half-time in extra-time, there had been 20 shots at goal collectively without either team scoring. The only game to have had more shots without scoring was when Spain played Austria in the 2017 Euro quarter-final (21).
It put into perspective not only the work being put in by each team's attacking players, but also the excellence in defence, particularly from the German back-line.
With eight minutes left Berger was finally beaten, and when she looks back at the replay, she will almost certainly be angry with herself.
Aitana Bonmati had broken free of her marker in the area, but the angle was far too tight to score and a pull-back appeared the only option.
Sensing an incoming cross, Berger made the fatal mistake of slightly moving away from her near post and that left a gap for the Barcelona player to smash home what turned out to be the winner. Her third knockout goal in major competitions also brought her level with Jenni Hermoso (three each).
Germany again ended the stronger of the two teams, but a first-ever win for Spain Women against the most successful Women's European Championship side in history soon became a reality.
In the aftermath, if Wuck and his players are looking for reasons why they failed to get into another final, just 17 touches in the opposition penalty box compared to Spain's 38 is one of many that will tell the story.
Follow the EURO 2025 final here.
