AT THE END of it all, with his eyes shimmering with tears, Jude Bellingham marched from the pitch and straight for the dugout, looking almost punch-drunk; as if he has been abruptly woken from some happy fever dream.
This, then, is what it feels like to have your whole sense of the world destroyed in a single moment. England, dreadful and stodgy for much of this tournament, were carried to this final in Berlin by a sense of destiny, with a catalogue of individual moments so outlandish that it felt they could only be writing the ultimate story.
But ultimately England ran out of miracles in Berlin, the essential poverty of their approach nowhere near commensurate with the rich adventure of Spain’s.
First Spain beguiled and then redeemed this tournament with their play their trust in youth and their general commitment to attack. The age of France and England, of refusing to do anything but Just Enough, has hopefully come to an end.
Spain have won the tournament by winning every game, without even needing penalties, and tonight they did it without their best player. Victories come in many different hues, but Spain’s is glorious. Utterly glorious.
For England it’s another heartbreak for the collection. Tonight they became the first team ever to lose back-to-back Euros finals, and it was a brutally difficult night for some of Southgate’s longer-serving soldiers.
Harry Kane was on the pitch for an hour, apparently, though his involvement still remains nothing more than an allegation. Kane passed the captain’s armband to Kyle Walker, who endured a nightmare, tortured by Nico Williams and then caught out of position on both Spanish goals.
The first half was submitted to Gareth Southgate’s extreme emotional control and while Spain controlled the ball, it felt like England controlled the game. There would be no reckless pressing or swashbuckling attack from England: they sat off Spain and limited them to virtually nothing. England, meanwhile, showed an avowed disinterest in playing football, doing little other than play long balls up to Bellingham and, apparently, Kane.
Still, it was England who had the only real chance of the first half, when Phil Foden volleyed at Unai Simon from a tight angle.
While Kyle Waker was being aged in real time by Nico Williams, Luke Shaw, starting his first game since February, shackled Lamine Yamal across an impressive first-half.
But the game everyone left at the break was transformed by the time they returned. Rumours swept around the press-box during the break and they were confirmed when the Spanish players trooped up the steps for the second-half.
Rodri, the Brain of Spain – the Man Who is Never Injured – was injured and replaced by Martin Zubimendi.
It was a shocking, shattering blow to Spain, a moment on par with Cristiano Ronaldo’s injury withdrawal from the 2016 final. Rodri then accentuated the parallels by standing by de la Fuente in the technical area to do his coaching from there.
This was obviously a disaster to Spain but was the kind of black swan event to turn England’s carefully plotted world upside down. And it was they who were initially destabilised by it all, because Spain suddenly came alive. They were ahead within two minutes, with the goal that will be the signature moment of the tournament.
Spain will be chiefly remembered for the electric pairing of Yamal and Williams, and the goal was their property. Yamal finally got away from Shaw and then showcased his astounding decision-making by waiting for Dani Olmo to bewilder Kyle Walker with a diagonal run. This created space for Williams, who smashed the ball into the bottom corner.
It was another reminder of how Southgate’s England choose to so narrow their own margins. The World Cup defeat to France in Qatar featured Walker doing a Shaw-on-Yamal-style job on Kylian Mbappe, with Walker only losing him once…which then allowed Mbappe set up Aurelien Tchouameni to score the opening goal.
Spain had no interest in playing the same stakes: their commitment to attack has what has set them apart here. But Olmo, Morata, and Yamal all spurned chances to seal the game and with every accumulating miss that sense of destiny that has propelled England to this final began to gather again.
Without Rodri’s sheer common sense, Spain remained loose, elastic. So when Mikel Oyarzabal took on a daft shot from a tight angle, England struck.
The swept up the field and their next hero off the rank was Cole Palmer, who slammed in a gorgeous shot from outside the box, all made possible by a Bellingham lay-off that was audacious and deft all in one go.
But England, oh England, they yet again stopped playing once they were level. Spain were magnificently undimmed, and England were straining beneath the razor-sharp link-up play between Olmo and Williams as Pickford single-handedly kept them alive.
But England’s fate did not travel as far as the final minute. Their hearts will ache when they add up the tiny gap between glory and failure. Oyarzabal was within an inch of being offside as he tapped in the winning goal from Cucurella’s cross, and minutes later Marc Guehi’s snap header from Simon’s save was headed off the line by Olmo.
But in truth the gap was wide and Spain are richly deserving champions. Southgate will probably leave now, without the medal to move his achievements in the job into an arena beyond any doubt.
It will now probably fall to someone else to end this extraordinary run of England failure, but in truth they would have endured this heartbreak a couple of weeks ago had they been landed in the tough side of the draw. That was the half from which Spain emerged: they came through the group of death and then beat the hosts, then the dominant international side of the era, and now they have downed the England who believed they could not be beaten.
Reality bites.
