Spain beats England 2-1 to win Euro 2024 final

Ruddy football. Boring Boring England. Too much faffing about like all the other games, they have the players to go and attack from the first minute. It makes me so cross to see the same turgid display every single match.

The better team won

England were a group of amazing individuals but not a functioning team.

Spain scored two great team goals, England didn't score a single team goal throughout the tournament

That said

After Palmer scored I thought maybe , just maybe

Heartbreak for the brave Three Lions - ecstacy for the brilliant Spaniards. Football is in equal parts joy and devastation. The 58 year wait goes on for England.

With superstars like Williams, Rodri, Olmo and up-and-coming star Yamal, La Roja have the nucleus of a potential World Cup winning team. For England, they can be proud, will be better for the experience - and are sure to be in with a real shout in USA/Mexico/Canada '26.

Felicidades España!

I'm so heartbroken.....

Second half Spain dominated, a team with a purpose, England strangely seemed to stall.

A tad infuriating, as England has moments of brilliance and skill, then seemed to just splutter like my vintage mini with the choke left on.

Itsonlyrockandroll

Seems like Southgate gave them Valium instead of oranges at half time, lol

Now the coach haters are back. He did very well to take them to the championship game. England will be back in the world championship next year. I predict a Japan-England final.

Excellent, well done Spain..

English defeated.. LOL.

VIVA ESPAÑA!!..

 England will be back in the world championship next year.

?

I don’t think you’ve read half of the books written about international football.

It makes me so cross to see the same turgid display every single match

To be fair, Steve. They were very good from the face off against the Netherlands. Google good football.

Anyway, Spain the best side in the tournament. Deserved winners.

falseflagsteve, I think it was the late great Jimmy Greaves that barked out "It's a game of two halves, three pints of lager and four tequilas".

I still enjoyed, Spain did excite through the disappointment of a England team so close yet so far.

Scotland first minster is about to announce a Bank Holiday and EU Ursula von der Leyen is doing a conga around the EU parliament.

Jimizo

Spells of good play but as much as they have trained together they don’t instinctively know where to go or who to pass to with the ball. They give other teams too much time to get men back when they break time after time just relying on wonder goals to score. It’s just not good enough from the players available.

I still enjoyed, Spain did excite through the disappointment of a England team so close yet so far

Not a great tournament overall. France a big disappointment, Portugal went flat, the Netherlands functional, Italy very poor, Germany did okay, England disjointed and relied on moments of individual brilliance.

Georgia and Spain the two sides for the neutral.

As I predicted,

Well-done Spain.

As I predicted

Well done.

Did you have a bet? Did you get 50/1?

zibala

As I predicted,

> Well-done Spain.

Predicting after the result is not a prediction.

Jimizo, It would trite disingenuous of me whine and groan, can't help it though, got up at three am to make coffee and prepare.

Arrived at work this morning like the walking dead, after a second half England seemed to just detach from the match,

Seems like Southgate gave them Valium instead of oranges at half time, lol

@Falseflag. It's not funny!

The expected result, with Spain the team of the tournament. England did their best and scored a great goal, but they were outdone on various levels.

Spain scored with their left winger and then with a ball supplied from their left back in an advanced position. I don't think England scored single goal all tournament from their left hand side. Their lineup usually included a right footed left back and no left forward or left winger, and it clearly limited what they could do in build up.

The English players were slow and unimaginative in attack (as usual) and, notwithstanding Cole Palmer's zinger of a goal, clueless about how to get a ball into a net. As expected, a deserved win for the Spanish team who provided most of the entertainment. With Alcaraz's crushing of the Serb tennis GOAT hours before, it will be remembered as a red-letter day for Spanish fans.

England were fortunate to end up in the weaker half of the knockout draw, avoiding all the big teams like France, Germany etc. Unfortunately, the had to face the music in the final, and Spain were vastly superior .....

I guess England fans would take anything at this point, but let's be honest, scraping through to the final barely managing to beat a bunch of nobody's with uninspiring football (maybe the first half against Netherlands aside) and then hoping that by far the best team in the tournament have an off day is no way to end 58 years of hurt.

When Southgate took on the England job, he seemed to work wonders with a very limited and young team, he has built a mental toughness into his teams that England always seemed to lack, we can win on penalties and we can pull last minute winners out of the bag that pre-Southgate teams would never have managed. However, with all the amazing players now at his disposal, he just hasn't managed to get them playing well together. The same players have been fantastic at some of the best clubs in the world. Spain seem to be a team that is greater than the sum of its parts, but England much less. We need to be better to win a major tournament. Could someone else do a better job than Southgate? Probably, but I don't know who it would be.

Could someone else do a better job than Southgate? Probably, but I don't know who it would be.

That’s the question - who is a better alternative?

Who wants the job?

It’s a pretty thankless one. The English media pumping up expectations and often exaggerating how good players are.

Southgate and England got to the finals and that is something positive. They lost by a single late goal to a better team. No shame on them for trying.

Well deserved, Spain… and well done—you saved us from the torture of having to deal with the arrogance of English fans for the next 2, 4 years (just kidding, heheh).

—

Nihon ToraToday  12:13 pm JST “ I guess England fans would take anything at this point, but let's be honest, scraping through to the final barely managing to beat a bunch of nobody's with uninspiring football (maybe the first half against Netherlands aside) and then hoping that by far the best team in the tournament have an off day is no way to end 58 years of hurt. “

Well said.

They were lucky to reach the final, and (if we’re being honest here) it’s not just Spain—Germany, France (Mbappe without the mask) and Portugal (if they play without Ronaldo) (and I’m being nice (I’m just mentioning these three)) are all stronger teams in all aspects of the game.

When in full flow, the fast moving Spaniards are a treat to watch. Time and again, those two tricky young boys Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal created doubts in the minds of the three Lions. They ran, stopped, and ran again giving nightmares to their opponents. Congratulations to Luis de la Fuentes and his footballers for winning all their seven encounters in normal time. Gaffer Gareth Southgate has assembled a formidable line-up who have the potential to win silverware on the global stage. All the best.

One of my favourite sports.

Watching England fail after talking themselves up.

Back in your box boys.

I called it, it was Spain's to lose and they could've lost it but showed why they were the team to beat all competition. England were just a wet fart and really shouldn't have got as far as they did.

In the first half, England played a reactive game well and cancelled out the Spanish attack, but Kane was isolated and largely immobile.

Spain scored (twice) most likely due to a tactical shift by their manager, spotting a vulnerability. Some wingers operate all the way down the line (Shaw, Trippier, Walker), but some are attacking wingers who may attack better don't track back well (Saka, Alexander-Arnold and Giggs for Wales). So Spain overloaded the midfield and moved them forward together in the centre of the pitch. This pulled Walker from right back to help out the defence. Saka didn't track back to cover quickly enough. That left a large hole that the Spanish could make use of. There was no warning for England, as the first time they did this, they scored. They shouldn't have been caught the second time. You could see Walker gesticulating for cover, without much success.

Southgate's subs were OK but could have come earlier. He always subs little and late. It would have gone to ET and probably pens if Spain hadn't cleared off the line at the end. Credit to Olmo for taking up that position.