Sunday July 14th 2024
Well, here’s a turn up for the books – England losing instead of sneaking a win.
Being brutally honest England’s previous matches weren’t demonstrations of overpowering a strong opposition. They were more like gaining hope by wearing lucky pyjamas the night before and it paying off.
England seems to need to come from behind rather than make the running and so it was that Spain’s Nico Williams obliged by being unmarked at around the 47th minute so that right winger Lamine Yamal could take the ball into midfield, cross to Williams and give him loads of time to pick the perfect spot to pass Pickford with ease.
No problem – this is what England does – come back and win.
So on came substitute Cole Palmer for Kobbie Mainoo in the 70th and by the 73rd it was all square again. That was thanks to Bellingham tapping back to an unmarked Palmer just outside Spain’s penalty area who powered the ball low past 4 defenders and goalie Simon diving to his right. Cracking goal, Grommit.
Time to go up a gear. Spain throughout the competition has shown they don’t depend on lucky pyjamas but attacking football and goal scoring to win matches. Coming to the final they were 12 goals for and 4 against compared to England’s 7 for and 4 against.
And so it was that an 86th minute charge forward by Spain had a 1-2 from Mikel Oyarzabal in the centre to Cucurella on the left. Cucurella slid the ball back for Oyarzabal on the edge of the 6 yard box where defender Marc Guehi was only able to watch Oyarzabal’s deft touch past Pickford’s right to the net behind.
England hadn’t done a return from 1-2 down in the 2024 competition but they still tried just that the lucky pyjamas had run out of magic and so that’s how it ended.
Football did not come home. Instead it followed the English retirees and went to Spain for a few years.
Pre-Match
Sunday July 14th 2024 Kick-off 8:00pm
Two UEFA Championship tournaments in a row and England reach the finals.
The path here has been edge of seat stuff with all but the first match in the Group stages seeming like a romp home, here’s a reminder:
- Early England goal establishes the lead, match won 1-0 (v Serbia, Group stage)
- Early England goal establishes the lead, opponents equalise soon after, match drawn 1-1 (v Denmark, Group stage)
- Nobody can be bothered to score a goal, match drawn 0-0 (v Slovenia, Group stage)
- Opponents go ahead early, England equalise in stoppage time and score winner in extra time, match won 2-1 (v Slovakia, last 16)
- Opponents go ahead late, England equalise shortly after; 1-1 after extra time then penalty shootout, 5-3 England (v Switzerland, quarters)
- Opponents go ahead early, England equalise shortly after and score winner in stoppage time, 2-1 (v Netherlands, semis)
And so it’s Spain.
They’ve played each other 27 times since first meeting in 1929 with England winning 13, drawing 4 and losing 10. Goals for England 45 and against 32. Their last matches were a pair of home & away UEFA Nations League games in 2018 with each side winning its away leg and both sides knocking four goals past the other over the two matches. You’d say that was even stevens.
Come on England!
The TVs in the Club will have the action.