England have been dignified to the top of their Euro remaining defeat

When the final whistle went, his players fell to the turf in despair. Gareth Southgate put his hands on his hips for a moment to compose himself. Then he walked over to the dancing, bouncing group that had Spain coach Luis de la Fuente at its heart.

Southgate found a way into the midst of this bundle of jumping joy that was not his, that will almost certainly never be his now with this England team, and found De la Fuente to shake his hand. The two men shared an embrace. Dignity is Southgate’s way.

If, as seems likely, this was his last match in charge of the country he has managed for eight years and more than 100 games, then the fates saved the cruellest cut for his farewell. England have been close before under Southgate but never this close.

Some will pour scorn on Southgate and his brave players because they feel that England should be winning every tournament they take part in but the truth is that they lost with honour and they lost with pride and they lost in the desperate pursuit of yet another comeback.

Criticise them if you want in the midst of your disappointment but this is not a snowflake generation of England players. This is a granite generation. This is a generation that does not know how to give up.

England were the only team to reach a European Championship final having been behind in the last 16, the quarter-finals and the semi-finals and they fought back yet again in the Olympiastadion after Spain had taken the lead through Nico Williams soon after half-time.

Cole Palmer sparked frenzied scenes when he finished a brilliant team move to draw England level late in the game but then, just when it seemed that 58 years of hurt really were coming to an end at last, Mikel Oyarzabal prodded home the winner four minutes from time.

It seems probable that this will have been Southgate’s final game after eight years as England boss. 

Win, and there was an outside chance that the FA might have persuaded him to stay on for the World Cup in 2026 but that chance has almost certainly gone now.

However much Southgate has achieved in his time in charge there has been, for much of the past three years, a rump of England fans determined to pour scorn upon him and repeat the meaningless and brainless mantra that everything England have achieved has been despite Southgate, not because of him.

Those voices have begun to weary Southgate, particularly since the Qatar World Cup, and he knows that their moaning and howling and griping and whining will only get louder now that England have fallen at the final hurdle again.

It is true that 58 years of hurt will now become 60 years but Southgate has built England into a force in world football again. 

This was their first final on foreign soil and the third time in four tournaments they have reached the semi-finals or better.

It seems it is Southgate’s fate to be the man who prepares the way. He has taken this team to the gates of heaven but he has been unable to take them the final step. 

He has not been able to win. He has not been able to end the years of hurt. That task, with this talented, redoubtable team of players, will now likely fall to his successor.

England were given a reminder of their disappointment in the last Euros final three years ago when Giorgio Chiellini, Italy’s skipper that evening at Wembley, walked out on to the pitch to place the trophy on its plinth on the touchline at the exit to the tunnel.

 

Southgate provided his own echo from that final. He made one personnel change to the team that started the semi-final victory over the Netherlands. 

He brought in Luke Shaw, the scorer of the opening goal at Wembley, for Kieran Trippier on the left and also reverted to the back-four that he had played in the group stages.

Shaw was tasked with keeping in check Lamine Yamal, the Spanish wunderkind who reached the ripe old age of 17 on Saturday, and he did it with great aplomb for the first 45 minutes. 

It was John Stones who had to make the first crucial tackle of the evening, sliding in to time a block on Williams’ shot to perfection.

Both teams were playing with purpose and confidence without creating clear-cut chances. Bukayo Saka and Kyle Walker pushed Marc Cucurella back on the Spanish left, which pleased the Germany fans in the ground. 

They booed him lustily every time he touched the ball, a hangover from his unpunished handball in the Germany-Spain quarter-final.

Shaw was playing superbly and Yamal saw little of the ball but Williams provided a persistent threat on the other flank.

The half was meandering to a close when Bellingham stole the ball off his Real Madrid team-mate Dani Carvajal on the edge of the Spain box and played the ball across the area. 

Harry Kane managed England’s first shot of the half but it was well blocked by Rodri, whose momentum took him into Aymeric Laporte as he fell.

Both men were able to continue but Spain had committed a foul in the interim and when Rice curled a dangerous free-kick into the box, it was flicked on and Foden, stretching, could not get enough power on his volley for it to trouble Unai Simon in the Spain goal.

Neither side had the upper hand. And for England, their performance provided more encouragement. 

Their opening 45 minutes were a lot closer to the verve of their play against the Dutch than it was to some of the stolid fare they produced in the group games.

It appeared Rodri had hyper-extended his knee when he blocked Kane’s shot and he did not come out for the second half. It was a huge blow for Spain because he had been, as usual, their outstanding player in the opening period. 

But Spain dealt with the setback in the best way possible. A little over a minute into the second half, Carvajal freed Yamal at last with a beautiful flick, Yamal made a diagonal run across the area and played the ball into the path of Williams, who drilled it past Jordan Pickford.

It was the first chance of the game and Spain took it. They made another a few minutes later when Williams’ shot was intercepted by on the edge of the England six-yard-box. His touch took him into space but he dragged his left-foot shot tamely wide.

England could easily have been two down. Having thwarted Spain’s attack so well in the first half, now they were reeling. 

Stones was booked for a foul on Martin Zubimendi as Spain broke forward at pace again. De la Fuente’s side had stepped up a gear. Spain were rampant now.

Alvaro Morata dinked a shot over Pickford but Stones hacked it off the line. Williams hit a stinging drive just wide of the right hand post. 

England needed to make a change fast and Southgate did not hesitate. Ollie Watkins, the hero of Dortmund, came on for Kane.

Midway through the half, Pickford made a brilliant finger-tip save to push a shot from Yamal around the post and still England reeled. Southgate made another change. Palmer came on for Kobbie Mainoo.

It worked almost immediately. Palmer played the ball out wide to Saka, Saka ran at his man and played the ball to Bellingham in the centre.

What Bellingham did next was brilliant. Simple but brilliant. Falling backwards, he touched the ball, perfectly weighted, into the path of Palmer.

What Palmer did next was brilliant, too. He curled it deliberately, accurately, beautifully past Simon from 20 yards.

The stadium erupted. Memories of all the other England comebacks in this tournament came flooding back. ‘England ’til I die,’ rolled around the stadium. England believed again. Anything seemed possible again.

Then they got a fright. Olmo played a short ball into Yamal’s feet in the box and suddenly he only had Pickford to beat. 

Yamal tried to curl it around him into the corner. He should have scored but Pickford anticipated the direction of the shot and dived to push it out.

Then came the critical blow. Spain played the ball wide to Cucurella and when he slid his cross into the box, it was met by substitute Oyarzabal who turned it past Pickford from close range.

It felt like it was over but England would still not lie down. Rice powered in a thumping header from a corner that Simon beat away, Marc Guehi headed it back in but it was nodded off the line. 

It ballooned up to Rice who tried to find the top corner but his second header was just too high. This time, there really was no way back, even for the team that had refused to lose for so long.