Defining Moments
Euro 2024 wrapped.
A strange tournament is now complete. As it played out it seemed to lack the fizz and sparkle of previous summer tournaments. Or maybe I am just getting old! As has been said frequently, Euro 2024 lacked enough games that fell into the ‘humdinger’ category to be a truly memorable tournament. And, perhaps most shockingly of all, German trains came in for sustained criticism!
England’s curious sojourn ends as runners-up again. There was a (very) short phase yesterday evening, after Cole Palmer’s equaliser, where it seemed like timing was going to be everything. Substitutes on and a sudden freshness. Crowd volume back up. Spain, fleetingly, looking almost flustered. Then the England that everyone has had to learn to endure during this tournament returned. Ceding territory and allowing Spain to re-assert themselves on the ball. One more sharp move and England were behind again. Spoiler alert: there would be still one more set-piece to provide a final hinge moment of Euro 2024!
But the story of England’s run to the final was so close to being so different. Were it not for this …
An entirely different script would have been written. An ignominious last-16 exit to Slovakia would have sat alongside the Euro 2016 debacle against Iceland and Gareth Southgate’s eight year tenure ending in similar disaster. That Bellingham equaliser on 94:34 was not only England’s first shot on target in the game, it proves to be their latest ever goal scored in normal time at a major tournament. Salvation.
That was on Sunday 30th June. Ten days later, England were in another semi-final and an improved performance, albeit from a very low base, saw them well in the game against the Netherlands as extra-time was looming. Given the chaotic commentary that surrounded England’s tactics; substitutions; and lack of use of players that might drive at defences, the events on 90+1 in Dortmund are somewhat ironic.
Substitutes. Palmer. Watkins. Sweet spot. Goal. Soaring into the final. Spain await.
Ollie Watkins said afterwards that he had ‘manifested’ the moment. He also didn’t think he had ‘hit the ball so sweet like that before’.
And so back to the final and picking up the thread back where this week’s short post started. England trailed 2-1 as the clock ticked down into injury-time and their hopes of glory appeared to be draining away. Football fans have probably made it a truism but it always feels like the team trailing get ‘one last chance’ at changing the script.
A Cole Palmer corner was met by a thumping John Stones header. Spain’s Unai Simon pawed it away on the goal-line. His instinctive stop only made it as far as Marc Guehi who, equally instinctively, nodded the ball back toward a goal that was no longer being effectively guarded by a grounded Unai Simon. Enter Dani Olmo:
He headed clear on his own goal-line. Declan Rice’s header in response went over the bar and Spaniards on the pitch celebrated a match-sealing intervention. England would not get any closer. Spain secured their fourth European Championship title and their victory in Berlin means they have now won three of the last five (having also triumphed in 2008 and 2012).