At the final whistle, England looked as if they had their hearts ripped out

The anguish knows no bounds. The final that Gareth Southgate wanted to win so much that it hurt is lost. Fifty-eight years of pent-up anguish will now stretch to 60 at least, with England condemned at a second straight European Championship to the sickening sensation of letting the ultimate prize slip.

Once more, it is the hope that kills. An entire nation had willed this team to produce the game of their lives, to shrug off the decades of pain as a mere historical detail. Except Spain, by a distance the finest team at this tournament, shredded the script, with Mikel Oyarzabal’s late goal bringing back the nausea of the near-miss, the desolation of tasting glory and then having it abruptly snatched away with a 2-1 final loss.

In time, England might appreciate what they have gained over this past month in Germany, how much they have electrified the national mood. But that time is not now. For Southgate, the circle remains maddeningly incomplete. Cast as the fall guy in 1996, tormented at missing the penalty that condemned England to crashing out of their own party, he has fallen short in attempting the grandest act of sporting absolution.

For Harry Kane, too, the feeling of loss is unfathomable. Clearly short of fitness here, he was substituted after an hour and had to watch from the bench as silverware eluded him yet again. How does he begin to process this? One last-gasp loss in a final, three years ago at Wembley, threatened to be too much for him to take. But two in a row? For the captain, for the manager, for the country, it is a disappointment almost beyond endurance.

“This time it just wasn’t meant to be,” said the Prince of Wales. “We’re all still so proud of you. Onwards.” England had craved the ultimate catharsis. They were desperate to put an end to all the yearning, all the dashed hope, all the self-mocking charity singles. But their first final on foreign soil careered towards the same fate as the one at home in 2021.

Cole Palmer’s equaliser, after Nico Williams’ second-half strike, had emboldened them to imagine that they could spark a fourth fightback of the tournament. Oyarzabal had other ideas.

“One more,” Southgate had screamed, the instant that England booked their tickets to Berlin. And the force of national will to deliver it was extraordinary. Spain versus England: on paper, it was a team of majesty against a team of moments.

Where Luis de la Fuente’s team had swept aside the best in Europe to reach this point, Southgate’s had an uncomfortable reliance on late goals and penalties. It was hardly a viable strategy for negotiating this, their greatest test. They needed to make this happen. That they could not will cut them to the core.

Pressure, or so the saying goes, is a privilege. But it was difficult to imagine the strain for these players as they filed out into the vast acres of the Olympiastadion, a fittingly monumental setting for an unforgettable occasion. The burden of expectation they shouldered was immense. The secret was to ensure that somehow, they would not let it suffocate them.

It was the event where everybody had to be. The Prince of Wales made a beeline to Berlin, the Prime Minister Keir Starmer was straight off the plane from Washington, and tens of thousands massed in the shadow of the Brandenburg Gate to drink in the giddiness of the scene.

The Prince of Wales shakes hands with Harry Kane.Credit: Getty Images

Whether prince or punter, all craved proximity to a moment they knew might not come again soon. There was talk of tickets being sold for $24,000 - five times face value. Even England’s Jordan Henderson, snubbed for a place in the squad, hired a van to bring his family from Amsterdam where he is playing for Ajax.

Southgate’s name was uniformly cheered at kick-off, marking quite the renaissance for a man who, 19 days earlier, had found himself pelted with beer cups after a goalless draw with Slovenia. Usually a pragmatist to his core, he pulled a rabbit out of the hat by replacing Kieran Trippier with Manchester United’s Luke Shaw, who had not started a game for club or country since February, to go up against 16-year-old prodigy Lamine Yamal. It seemed a startling show of faith.

England understood that, over a single game, they had the tools to subdue Spain. But how much of the ball would they have? It is a Spanish tradition to weave pretty patterns around their opponents, subjecting them to torture by a thousand triangles.

The tension was unbearable. Where England had won their semi-final fuelled by pure adrenalin, they toiled here to impose themselves, almost shadow-boxing at times as they strained to detonate a decisive blow. You could sense the apprehension in the stands. It is a quirk of this stadium, a haunting relic of the 1936 Olympics, that it is designed for athletics rather than football, with fans set back from the touchlines and unable to impart quite the same energy. Sure enough, England’s first half was characterised by a strange sense of detachment, with far too many long balls and a worrying lack of poise.

Their best option was to soak up Spain’s dominance of possession and trust that they could strike on the counter.

Agony and ecstasy at fulltime.Credit: AP

Except La Roja thwarted the plan courtesy of their lightning wingers, with the brilliant Yamal nipping in behind Shaw and producing the perfect weight of pass for Nico Williams to lash past Jordan Pickford first time. There was no controversy for England here, no misfortune. They had just been unstitched by a far superior attack.

At one level, it was the jolt they required. Too passive, too devoid of a plan, they now had no choice but to rediscover the confidence that had enabled them to overturn three deficits to triumph. Southgate abandoned caution, removing Kane.

And as if by magic, the belief was back. Spain are established masters of shutting down games as soon as they lead, but England would have none of it. On ran Palmer, a 22-year-old so nerveless you wonder sometimes whether he has a pulse, stroking the ball low, hard and true beyond Unai Simon for the most priceless goal.

“England ’til I die,” went the cry, at ear-splitting volume. For this was now recast, essentially, as a duel to the death. And it was Spain, to England’s horror, who conjured the defining flourish, with Mikel Oyarzabal surging past a static Kyle Walker to apply the coup de grace. At the final whistle, England players, many on their backs on the turf, looked as if they had their hearts ripped from their bodies.

London Telegraph