Spain vs England live updates (2024)

England’s long wait for a first major men’s trophy since 1966 goes on after substitute Mikel Oyarzabal struck at the death to win the 2024 European Championship for Spain.

After a tense opening half the excellent Nico Williams gave Spain the lead seconds after the half-time interval, only for Cole Palmer to level the score with a fine strike from range.

But Spain, the better team throughout, won the title when Mikel Oyarzabal slid home Marc Cucurella’s cross with just minutes of the game remaining.

It is the second successive European Championship final defeat England have suffered and the fourth time Spain have lifted the Henri Delaunay Cup.

Spain and their Barcelona wonderkid Lamine Yamal have won Euro 2024.

Now Argentina and their former Barcelona wonderkid Lionel Messi will try to do the same in the Copa America final, against Colombia in Miami.

This one was due to start shortly, although there have been some concerning scenes outside the stadium ahead of kick-off.

You can follow live updates on that situation and the match action here.

Harry Kane has had moments this tournament — the winner versus Slovakia, his nerveless penalty against the Netherlands.

But this has not been a competition where he has been at his all-court best.

In the final, his movement was as laboured as it has been throughout the tournament, with Spain’s centre-backs able to press up aggressively and not worried about the run in behind.

On an early yellow card and struggling to find team-mates with his hold-up play, there were reasons for England manager Southgate to make an early change.

It was a big call for Gareth Southgate to name Luke Shaw in the starting XI for the first time this summer.

Shaw had the small task of looking after the most electric player in European football, Yamine Lamal, who has lit up the competition with his creative threat and thunderous striking ability.

There was a case to be made that Kieran Trippier might have (finally) been a better option on the night, with Yamal likely to drift infield onto Trippier’s stronger right foot.

But Shaw started excellently as he largely kept the teenager quiet in the first half.

However, Yamal doesn’t need many opportunities to punish you…

Rodri got through a phenomenal amount of work in the first 45 minutes, being influential as usual from his position holding the Spain midfield.

However, close to half-time he threw himself to get in the way of a Harry Kane effort from the edge of the box. The stretch led to a pulled hamstring.

On came the much less experienced but highly rated Martin Zubimendi…

Williams’ opening goal was Spain’s 14th in the tournament, more than La Roja had ever scored at a European Championship or World Cup, and equaling France 1984 for the high-scorers in Euros history.

Nobody had ever scored 15 goals at a European Championship until Luis de la Fuente’s young, exciting and ambitious Spain team came along — and their attacking approach paid off with the trophy.

Major tournament finals are for heroes and villains. Jude Bellingham has so often been the former for England, but he did not pick up Dani Carvajal or Lamine Yamal for the opener.

Bellingham let Carvajal advance and called for a defender to step up and mark Yamal. Bellingham was caught not marking either full-back or winger.

In true Bellingham fashion, he then atoned completely.

One of the first decisions Luis de la Fuente made on taking over as Spain coach was to make Mikel Oyarzabal one of his vice-captains, breaking with tradition to add a younger and less-capped player to the squad’s leadership group.

That was because De la Fuente valued so highly his fellow Basque’s influence on and off the pitch.

Oyarzabal has always been a versatile and intelligent attacker, but never a truly prolific goalscorer. De la Fuente also knew him, and rated him, as a key member of the Under-21 team he coached to European success in 2019.

And he also has a knack of scoring important goals in big games.

Special scenes in Madrid as the city hall is lit in the colours of the Spanish flag on its facade, following their county victory in Berlin tonight.

It is of course at this moment that all the celebration plans can now be enacted in Spain, while those in England will never see the light of day.

One rather unsatisfactory conclusion tonight was to the Euro 2024 top scorer standings, with the award being handed out to six players.

Slovakia’s Ivan Schranz, Georges Mikautadze of Georgia, Germany forward Jamal Musiala and Netherlands’ Cody Gakpo were all tied on three goals ahead of the final.

So too were Harry Kane and Dani Olmo, although they at least had the best opportunity to win it outright in the final.

Alas, they were not among the scorers in Berlin and now UEFA is going to need to find six trophies for the price of one tournament.

Also, three goals doesn’t feel a lot either — but let’s not dilute the achievement further.

These are the pieces that take on a completely new level of context, when the star of the show does something special in future like… I don’t know… winning a European Championship final or some such.

Mikel Oyarzabal has had it touch, which means tonight will feel sweeter for him than perhaps for anyone else in that Spain squad.

And to fully appreciate that journey, given this wonderful interview with Dermot Corrigan a read and enjoy a deeper perspective on Spain’s match-winner.

Speaking on ITV a disconsolate Gareth Southgate said England “are in a good position” to compete at the 2026 World Cup:

💬 “I don’t think now is a good time to make a decision like that. I’m going to talk to the right people and, yeah, it’s just not for now.

“I think England are in a really good position in terms of the experiences they’ve got now, the age of the squad. Most of this squad are going to be around not just for the World Cup but the next Euros as well.

“There’s a lot to look forward to but at this moment that’s not any consolation.”

As for the narrative of England’s men waiting for a major honour to follow their 1966 World Cup success at Wembley, there has been some progress with this being their first major final on foreign soil.

However, their defeat in today’s final in Berlin came in their 45th European Championship finals game.

That is 19 more matches than any other nation to have never won the tournament. Closest to them are Belgium, after 26 matches.

If football really is coming home, it’s definitely taking the scenic route.

The stats for England are not as joyous, as you would expect — to the point that Jack Grealish gets a mention.

Harry Kane had just ONE touch in the opposition box across the Euro 2020 and Euro 2024 finals, against Italy and Spain respectively.

That’s bad obviously — but it is also ONE fewer than Jack Grealish managed.

That’s Jack Grealish, who played just 21 minutes in the 2020 final and didn’t even make the squad for Euro 2024.

So Spain now have a record four European Championship titles — 1964, 2008, 2012 and 2024.

Having won all four of their seven matches at Euro 2024, they have also become only the second team in Euros history to win the trophy with a 100 per cent win rate since the introduction of the group stage in 1980

France in 1984 was the previous occasion, when they won five from five.

And finally, they also beat the record for most goals scored by a team in a tournament, with 15.

You can see what the shot map of history looks like above.

It felt cagey in the first half but by the end, it felt like Spain did more than enough to seal the deal — as the score line proved. My friends, the numbers, clearly agreed by full time too as you can see for yourself…

FT: Spain 2-1 England

• Possession: 65% — 35%
• Shots: 16 — 9
• On target: 6 — 4
• XG: 1.77 — 0.55
• Big chances: 5 — 2
• Blocked shots: 5 — 3
• Duels won: 35 — 43
• Dispossessed: 10 — 6

And that is why not having the ball can be fine, but you have to be so good with it in the short spells you do have it. Spain have the ball, created the volume and quality of chances and ultimately, did the business. Here’s to Euro 2024’s worthy champions.

Rodri is approaching serial winner territory now. After numerous successes with Manchester City, the Spain midfielder is now a significant part of European Championship history.

Here he is, talking to ITV Sport:

💬 “It’s unbelievable. This is a dream. The best national team in the Euros is crazy. But this talks about how humble we have been to keep working, never lose faith. And this tournament… Come on. We beat four (past) World Cup champions. I mean, how tough was that?!

“I know (Cole Palmer is a huge star and going to be the top player in the next year. He put it in the corner and in that moment, we suffered.

“But this tournament, we saw something different — that we could overcome this situation.

“We’re so happy about what happened. We made history but this doesn’t stop here.”

For all England’s misery, what a joyous occasion for Spain as they return to the top of European football — and what a job Spain head coach Luis de la Fuente has done in getting them back there. Here he is speaking to La 1:

💬 “You cannot be happier than this, to see the fans, the players… Cannot be happier. It was a marvellous day, an authentic team. I am even prouder of them now.

“We wanted to reinforce who we are, keep doing what we do. We knew the game would open up.

“We can always improve. We always felt we could do more. Now we will try and win the next competition too. And we will do it, as these players are an example for everyone. They are very good.”

Gareth Southgate cut a devastated figure off the back of that final defeat, as you’d expect. He ensured everyone knew he felt Spain were the best team in the tournament — but after that, he addressed some of England issues with BBC Sport:

💬 “There is definitely a disadvantage to having a day less to prepare. But we were still in it come 80 minutes. It is going to take a while to pick the bones out of it really.

“Physically it has been tough for (Harry Kane). He came into the tournament short on games and has not quite reached the level we all would have hoped.

“The games are hugely demanding and we thought Ollie’s (Watkins) freshness would allow us to press better and offer a press in behind. I thought the substitutes came on and did what we asked them to do.”