Ave Eva Maria Navarro

After picking up the ball in midfield, Eva Maria Navarro darted instinctively towards the penalty area with just seven minutes left on the clock in Mariampolė. There was still plenty of work to be done and no team-mate had been able to match her pace and provide support. The 17-year-old had to go it alone, her team's destiny at her dazzling feet.

Navarro knows what it means to play in the UEFA European Women's Under-17 Championship, having taken part already in the 2016 and 2017 editions. She thus knows the feeling of being on the losing side, and was aware how important a second goal would be to her team, leading Germany 1-0 in the showpiece.

"This year I've played very well, scored four goals and I expect to win the final," she said on the eve of her majestic moment. Thanks to that confidence off and on the field, she now knows what it feels like to win it.

A burst of pace, excellent close control, a shimmy past the lunging Anna Aehling and another to take Julia Pollak out of the equation. Retreating just outside the penalty area, Navarro looped an unstoppable shot over a forlorn Wiebke Willebrandt. Spain had their hands firmly on the prize.

Eva Navarro clearly enjoyed her time in Lithuania©Saulius Čirba

"I still can't quite believe what I am experiencing," Navarro told Spanish media as her goal was already going viral on social media. "I'm so happy with what we've achieved and that our whole country saw us, as well as the reactions to my second goal which completed this collective victory.

"It's going to be a very important goal for me and I'm delighted to have scored it. It was very difficult – I stole the ball, pushed forward and the defence closed in on me a lot. Their goalkeeper was very far out of her goal, but I was lucky to hit it well and get the goal which gave us some breathing space to win the title. This goal is, without doubt, my most important – the one which has given me the most; something spectacular I can never forget it as it practically gave us the title."

A title which was the culmination of years of hard work, dedication and persistence which Navarro effused when she met with UEFA's Technical Observers prior to the final.

"It's a great competition, I feel very fortunate – in many years I can look back on this as the most important experience of my life," she said. "The first time was in 2016, when I was 15 – I didn't play much, but last year in the Czech Republic I played every game apart from the semi-final, and also scored against Germany."

Born in Yecla, in the region of Murcia in eastern Spain, Navarro found a football at her feet at the tender age of three. It was kicked to her by her brother – the greatest gift he could have given. "I would play at home with my brother as he plays football too," Navarro recounted. "Until I was, 13 I played with boys. I would train three times a week, for an hour," dreaming of becoming like her idol, Andrés Iniesta.

Another Navarro goal – this one against Finland©Saulius Čirba

She then joined SPA Alicante and debuted in Spain's Segunda División – second tier – at the age of 15, catching the eye of the Spanish federation and forming part of the squad which lost out to Germany in the 2016 final, suffering the same fate a year later. It was all important for her development, though.

"This year I am one of the older players here," Navarro said. "In the last years, I felt some opponents were stronger than me, but now I feel that I am stronger." Conversely, she can help her team-mates, such as 14-year-old Salma Paralluelo who would often switch sides with Navarro in Lithuania, on their path to emulating hers. "I give a lot of confidence to my team-mates and for them it may be the first time in a final phase so I can pass on my experience," she said.

This experience is only relative, however. Her own footballing path is only in its precocious stages, and Navarro did not hide her ambitions. "I want to play in the Primera Division play the Copa de la Reina and play in the UEFA Women's Champions League," she said. If that is not possible with Alicante, "then with a club who can be competitive."

With a livewire Navarro in the side, that may well be a formality.