Spain strike late to beat England and win Euro 2024

Substitute Mikel Oyarzabal scored four minutes from time to give Spain a deserved 2-1 Euro 2024 final victory over England and a record fourth European crown, as Gareth Southgate’s team lost in their second successive final.

Oyarzabal combined with Marc Cucurella on a swift counter-attack for the winning goal as Spain were crowned champions, having won all seven games they played in the tournament in Germany.

“I have done my job. I did what I had to do at every moment to try to help. I was lucky enough to give the victory. Just the fact of being in the 26, you value it a lot here. To have the moment to help as it has happened to me is the best. It happened to me but could have happened to anyone,” Oyarzabal said after the match.

England captain Harry Kane lauded his team for fighting back to level the match but said they could not keep the momentum going.

“Losing in a final is as tough as it gets. We done really well to get back into the game, to get to 1-1,” Kane said.

“It’s as painful as it could be in a football match. We didn’t keep the same intensity and pressure, we didn’t quite keep the ball well enough. It’s the last stage of the tournament. There’s a lot of tired legs, a lot of tired mentality there. We just struggled and obviously we got caught with the ball in behind.

“These are down to big moments. We had a big moment at the end where they cleared one off the line and it could have been different. It’s been a tough tournament. We’ve had to show a lot of resilience, me personally and the whole team. Right now, it’s just a huge disappointment.”

After an extremely cautious first half where Spain had more possession and their opponents got the only shot on target, it only took two minutes after the restart for the Spaniards to break the deadlock.

Teenager Lamine Yamal found space down the right and crossed for fellow winger Nico Williams to slot home as England fell behind for the fourth successive match.

Spain then enjoyed a purple patch with a series of attacks as England’s previously watertight defence fell apart.

Spain’s Mikel Oyarzabal scores the winner.Credit: AP

England boss Southgate reacted by sending on Ollie Watkins, the goalscoring substitute hero of the semi-final, for an ineffective Kane after an hour, with Cole Palmer, their most creative player for the last month, joining him 10 minutes later.

It paid off almost immediately when Jude Bellingham laid the ball back into Palmer’s path and the substitute curled home a precise low 20-metre shot in the 73rd minute.

The massed ranks of England fans, who vastly outnumbered their rivals, exploded and the whole feel of the night changed.

Spain, however, weathered the storm and, Oyarzabal who came on in the 68th minute, struck.

There was still time for more drama at the other end as Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon parried a Declan Rice header from a corner and Dani Olmo blocked Marc Guehi’s follow up on the line.

Spain 2 (Nico Williams 47, Mikel Oyarzabal 86) Yellow card: Dani Olmo 31 Subs used: Martín Zubimendi 46 (Rodri), Mikel Oyarzabal 68 (Álvaro Morata), Nacho 83 (Robin Le Normand), Mikel Merino 89 (Lamine Yamal)

England 1 (C. Palmer 73) Yellow card: Kane 25, Stones 53, Watkins 92 Subs used: Watkins 61 (Kane), Palmer 70 (Mainoo), Toney 89 (Foden)

Venue: Olympiastadion. Berlin Attendance: 65,600 Referee: François Letexier

Reuters

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