14 July 2024, Olympiastadion, Berlin. Spain 2–1 England.
By Hamish McTavish
A Sunday night in Berlin, the Olympic Stadium holding a second straight European final, and a country that had already printed the ending. The Sun on Sunday, that morning, had We will win. The Sunday Express had We Kane do it. Harry Kane, the day before, had said they had the opportunity to get over the line, and that hopefully at midnight they would be the team to bring the trophy to England. Gareth Southgate had the waistcoat and the memory of Wembley three years earlier, which is a poor thing to bring to a second final and also the only thing he had. The Mail, in the morning, would not need a new joke. Football’s not coming home. Metro had The Lions Weep Tonight. The Mirror had Shattered. The Guardian had Agony for England. The Express, on brand, had the proud-loser clause: dream is over… but Three Lions, you did us proud. El País had Spain reign in Europe. One night, two genres.
A second final is supposed to be the one they cannot miss. That is the certainty they took to Berlin: not the 1966 drag, exactly, but the unhedged Sunday, the idea that the wait had been rehearsed long enough to be paid. They had come from behind in the knockouts, Ollie Watkins in the semi, Cole Palmer on the bench, Jude Bellingham already a habit. Spain had won every game. Lamine Yamal was seventeen years and a day, the youngest to start one of these. Nico Williams was twenty-two. Rodri sat in front of the back four until he could not. Southgate had Kyle Walker, John Stones, Marc Guéhi, Luke Shaw, Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden, Kane. He also had the habit of conceding first in every knockout match of the summer. He conceded first again.
Berlin on a Sunday is a final whether you have a ticket or the other screen. The ones who had sung it home in 2021 sang it on the trains again. Fifty-eight years had been packed as if a number were a tactic. Yamal and Williams had been packed as a problem. Southgate had been packed as the man who gets them to the night and not through it. The Mail had already written the hangover line. It was only waiting for the eighty-sixth minute.
They kicked off anyway.
The first half was a game Spain were allowed to have without taking. Shaw had Yamal for a stretch. Stones had Williams. Kane had the evening he had been having all month, which was not enough. Then, sixty-nine seconds into the second half, Yamal found the space on the right and Williams hit it first time, past Jordan Pickford, a winger finishing like a number nine. One-nil, and England behind in a knockout for the fourth time in four. Southgate did the thing that had been working. Watkins for Kane after the hour. Palmer for Mainoo ten minutes later. Three minutes after that, Saka down the right, Bellingham’s lay-off, Palmer side-footing it into the corner from twenty yards. One-one, and the English end making the sound a second final makes when it thinks the script has remembered them.
That is the turn, and they do not have it. They think they have extra time. They have four minutes of being level with a side that has not lost since the group was a rumour. Marc Cucurella hung one up from the left. Mikel Oyarzabal, on for Álvaro Morata, stayed onside of Guéhi by the sort of margin a final uses, and poked it past Pickford. Eighty-six minutes. Two-one. Rice still had a header. Unai Simón saved it. Guéhi still had one on the line. Dani Olmo headed it off. Spain had seven wins from seven, fifteen goals, a fourth European title. England had a second straight final defeat, fifty-eight years still on the clock, and a manager who would not last the month. Southgate said Spain were the best team in the tournament, that they had not quite kept the ball well enough, that they were right in it until the last ten minutes, and that he was devastated for everybody. He can have devastated. Oyarzabal had the poke.
Williams had the first-time finish. Yamal had the pass, seventeen, in a final. Palmer had the three-minute equaliser. Oyarzabal had the last one. Cucurella had the cross. Pickford had the two he could not reach. Kane had the Sunday Express and the hour. Southgate had we will win waiting for him on the breakfast table he did not want. Simón and Olmo had the two that would have been the other story. The Sun had the unhedged Sunday. The Mail had the hymn, returned. The Express had the pride. Spain had the trophy. Fifty-eight went to fifty-nine and kept walking.
They said we will win. They said we Kane do it. They said midnight, the trophy, England. They said you did us proud. If you still think it was only the last ten minutes, a funeral is only a Tuesday. The last ten minutes were a substitute at the far post. The morning was we will win. The hymn is not coming home. It was never their hymn to keep.
The film is up. The three goals are still there: Williams, Palmer, Oyarzabal, the header off the line. Do not review it. Watch the Sunday front die on an eighty-sixth-minute poke.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9muVsr3LXAk
Related reading
- It's coming to Rome — Wembley 2021; Italy on penalties; Southgate’s first final
- Football's not coming home — Moscow 2018; Zagreb filed the line the Mail recycled for Berlin
If the nights sit right, the shirts and the wall are at /shop.
FAQ
What was the score when Spain beat England in Berlin 2024?
Spain 2–1 England, on 14 July 2024 at the Olympiastadion, Berlin. Nico Williams and Mikel Oyarzabal scored for Spain; Cole Palmer equalised for England.
Where does the title “We will win” come from?
The Sun on Sunday, morning of the final — We will win — before Oyarzabal’s eighty-sixth-minute poke returned the hymn to the Mail: Football’s not coming home.
Was this England’s second straight European final defeat?
Yes. They lost the Euro 2020 final to Italy at Wembley (3–2 on penalties after 1–1) and the Euro 2024 final to Spain in Berlin.