Spain were worthy winners in the Euro 2024 final but the thing to examine from England’s perspective is not how good their opponents in Berlin were on the night, but how far better they were throughout the tournament.
If you were to rank the 14 team performances by quality between the two teams in this tournament, Spain would have seven and England seven. That’s the difference. Spain impressed and fascinated in every game. Like any other team, they had weaknesses, but those weaknesses were usually born of bravery and eagerness to attack.
England were a disappointment in the group stage, never quite getting their attack going but at least their defence was solid, and in the knockout stages, apart from a penalty awarded in the semi-final against the Netherlands, they conceded more expected goals (xG) than they created in all four of their matches.
And judging by the starting lineups, that’s simply not going to happen.
The Ballon d’Or was decided at this time last year, as it is now contested seasonally rather than annually, but Spain had no players on its list of 30 candidates. In the British newspaper The Guardian’s list of the 100 best players in the world, which will be voted on at the end of 2023, Spain has only three players in the top 70. Of those three, Gabi missed all of Euro 2024 due to injury, Pedri was injured early in the quarterfinal against Germany and missed the rest of the tournament, and Rodri was forced to leave the field at halftime of the final.
You’d think that a Spanish player would be higher in this year’s rankings, but by those standards, Spain was virtually without a world-leading star for 45 crucial minutes last night.
This was ultimately a triumph of teamwork and unity over individualism.
England had 13 players in the top 100 on that list, including some who were not included in Gareth Southgate’s 26-man squad for Euro 2024. England’s trump card going into the tournament was that they had arguably the best players in the Premier League (Phil Foden), Bundesliga (Harry Kane) and La Liga (Jude Bellingham).
It wasn’t that England lacked stars, they just lacked cohesion.
It is difficult to find a single overall concept that worked for England across the seven matches. Goalkeeper Jordan Pickford’s distribution was often very direct and there was no obvious pattern to England’s attempts to pass from the back. It was also clear that the passing network in the final showed no coordination between the attacking players and that the most frequent passing combination was centre-back John Stones passing back to Pickford.
In contrast, the Spanish one is a work of art.
In terms of pressing, certainly a difficult concept in tournament football, England were noticeably passive. Striker Kane’s limited mobility helped, but pressing is also a question of organisation, and England’s approach was disjointed. In the final third, despite their big men, there were few signs of good chemistry between the players. No two players looked to be on the same wavelength (with the possible exception of Bukayo Saka and Kyle Walker), there was no rotation, and no one to spread the play out to create space for others. It’s also hard to recall examples of England jumping into attacks on the counter, something their attacking players are individually capable of doing, after so many long periods in this tournament.
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This was a team that relied on moments of magic — Bellingham’s bicycle kick that sent the game into extra time against Slovakia, Saka’s late equaliser against Switzerland, Ollie Watkins’ late winner against the Netherlands and Cole Palmer’s equaliser in the final — and there was no denying the solid performances from newcomers like Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa and Kobe Mainu.
But it all just goes to show the quality of the individual players. As a team, England were average and lucky to even make it to the final.
Coming into the final, their biggest problem was applying pressure.
From the first minute, it looked like there was an intention to press high – from Spain’s first goal kick, England pushed up and tried to keep it tight – but was there actually a plan?
With Spain’s back four and two central midfielders defending with six men, England press with five, freeing up right-back Dani Carvajal. Spain clearly have the ball out and work it down that side of the pitch.
There are many ways to do it in England did it With five players pressuring here – say, Bellingham blocking the passing lanes to the right-back, or England moving laterally across the pitch with Saka trying to get at the central midfielder on the near side – you can tell there’s a plan there.
But England looked confused. By the time Carvajal received the ball, Luke Shaw was nervously looking over his shoulder, unsure whether to rush forward and press. Carvajal had plenty of time to send the ball forward…
…and the move ends with Alvaro Morata going deep to win the ball and trying to thread a pass to Lamine Yamal. Well, it was probably offside, but Spain had done well past England after just one minute.
It wasn’t a one-off. Ten minutes into the game, the same situation happened. Spain was coming from behind. Shaw wasn’t sure if he should jump. Bellingham seemed to be telling him he should.
Spain get the ball down that side, Bellingham is pressing but working individually, Shaw is too far from Carvajal and again it’s an easy out-ball.
Carvajal then had time to pick out a good long pass…
…And if Nico Williams had headed the ball, he might have flicked it to Fabian Ruiz running from behind.
These issues were never fully resolved.
In the second half, Spain changed from their initial 4-3-3 to something closer to a 4-2-3-1, but England had the same problem when trying to apply semi-pressure in midfield. Here, Bellingham is seen gesturing towards Yamal, presumably telling Shaw to push him in, but we don’t know for sure.
As the ball is played to Shaw, you can just barely make out his outstretched arm pointing frantically. Again, it’s unclear what the organization is like.
But either way, Shaw, who excels in one-on-one situations, found himself caught in between. He wasn’t close enough to put pressure on Carvajal, but he played Yamal goalside and then rounded the corner, where the winger ran onto Carvajal’s clever outside pass.
Yamal dribbles in and passes the ball to Williams…
…Someone who finishes things smartly.
The pattern continued: Robin Le Normand working the ball into midfield, Yamal drifting inside, Carvajal overlapping. Bellingham is pointing to something. So is Shaw. But neither man is really in a position to contain either player.
Yamal receives the ball and passes it behind him…
…and Morata had ample chances to make it 2-0.
Spain’s victory actually came from the other side.
And in the final minutes of a long tournament, England could be forgiven for not pressing hard here.
And yet, judging by the starting positions of their attacking players, it looks like they would have liked to do so, but this pass from Aymeric Laporte to Luiz is very simple, with neither player under pressure.
And at the far post, a familiar scene unfolded: Walker unsure whether to follow Dani Olmo inside, Saka unaware of the run of Marc Cucurella.
England are ahead. Walker is chasing a shadow, the ball is whizzing around him. From this point on, it’s worth simply assessing the quality of the goal. Mikel Oyarzabal feeds Cucurella to keep the play going…
… He then made a well-timed run into the box, received the return ball and scored.
England were not completely humiliated in the final, going into the half-time break without having conceded any clear-cut chances, coming back into the match with some players from the bench, defending set pieces well and having a great chance to level the score again from a corner kick in their own half in the second half.
But England played like underdogs, relying too much on long balls and chasing as individuals rather than pressing as a team.
It is instructive that they lost in the second half to a team that was forced to play without Rodri, who was named the tournament’s best player.
Spain as a whole were on a different level to England last night, and over the last month.
