Spain’s La Liga, and England’s Premier League are widely considered the two best domestic leagues in world football, it’s perhaps not a surprise that England and Spain will meet in the Euro 2024 final as both nations are hotbeds of footballing talent. Spain has unlocked their attack with a new generation, perhaps a new golden generation, of talented footballers like Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal, who at 16 is turning heads and setting records. England has their own superstars like Phil Foden from Manchester City and Jude Bellingham from Real Madrid. The Three Lions have not thrilled supporters with their brand of football, but they are back in the European final and looking to bring the trophy home to London on Sunday. Our panelists offer their predictions.
England vs Spain (Sunday in Berlin)
Steen Kirby: 3 time European Champions Spain can go top of the list in terms of accolades if they win this final, they are 3-1 in EURO finals, most recently winning the double in 2008 and 2012 (with the 2010 World Cup coming in between). England has only reached a solitary European final, in the 2020 (played in 2021) edition of the tournament they suffered a heartbreaking defeat on penalties to Italy, under their current manager Gareth Southgate. Looking first at England, with just 5 points in the group stage and a stodgy style of play all the way into the semifinal, England fans experienced pain and misery already this tournament, they were seconds away from losing to Slovakia in the round of 16, only for Jude Bellingham to perform a miracle, and another goal to find its way into the net shortly into extra time for a 2-1 win. Jordan Pickford from Everton and Bukayo Saka, age 22, from Arsenal, helped them to defeat Switzerland in a penalty shootout and then they defeated The Netherlands in the semifinal 2-1, with Harry Kane being gifted a penalty in the first half against all odds, and Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins, a super sub who replaced Kane, coming on to score just before regular time ended and the match was headed to extra time.
The best you can say about England is they have shown resilience all tournament, the Three Lions trailed 1-0 in all three of their knockout stage games only to recover and go on to win, including a win on penalties which has always been a point of anguish for historic England teams. This is a side with belief, and in the semifinal they at least opened up some gaps in the Dutch backline, with Phil Foden in particular a threat. This England side has also defended well, they don’t concede easily as Marc Guehi, John Stones and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford have had wonderful tournament’s respectively. The trouble is, they simply don’t generate a lot of goal scoring chances and perhaps will be hoping to push the game into the late pressure stages again, at no point this tournament did England generate an expected goals of 2 or more and only twice have they scored two goals, they also haven’t faced absolute world beater opponents if we are being honest.
Spain have taken a very different path to the final, one that was more difficult but also more exciting and dynamic. they were undefeated in the group stages beating Croatia 3-0 and defending Champions Italy 1-0. They dominated Georgia 4-1 after going a goal down, before triumphing in Extra Time late against Germany, the team they are tied on with 3 Euro trophies and the hosts of this years tournament. That quarterfinal was considered by many to be the final of the two best teams in Europe right now. The semifinal was no easier, defending World Cup finalists France, who admittedly did not have the best performances this tournament, scored to go 1-0 up in the first two minutes, but Spain countered with two goals midway in the first half and then defended well to win 2-1 with Dani Olmo and the teenager from Barcelona Yamal the goalscorers.
Spain have scored a goal in every match this tournament and have scored 2+ goals in four of their six matches, all while facing the stronger set of opponents. The heart says England, but the head says Spain here as this is a side playing vital attacking football, the backline is respectable with Marc Cucurella the standout, but really it’s Fabian Ruiz in the midfield and an attack consisting of Yamal, Olmo, Nico Williams, and the veteran Alvaro Morata that is likely to terrorize England. Spain won’t want to let this go to penalties or extra time, they will want to dominate on the ball, deny England chances to counter, and try to score at least one early goal so they can breathe. I’m not sure how England keep up with Spain’s blistering pace in this match. Prediction: Spain 2 England 0
Ben Gray: A month ago, 24 nations converged on Germany for the 17th edition of the European Championship; 50 matches have been played, 114 goals scored and over 2.6 million supporters have attended fixtures in the last four weeks, but it now all comes down to this.
On Sunday night in Berlin, will Spain hoist aloft a record-breaking fourth Euros title, or can England end 58-years of hurt by getting their hands on the Henri Delaunay Trophy for the very first time?
Without doubt, Spain have been the most impressive team at this tournament, winning all six matches en route to the final, notably beating both Croatia and Italy during the group phase, before hammering Georgia 4-1 in the round of 16.
Luis de la Fuente’s side have then certainly been made to work hard for their two most-recent victories, taken to extra time by hosts Germany, who equalised in the 90th minute, before Mikel Merino’s towering header snatched victory in Stuttgart in the dying embers of extra time.
Then, in Tuesday night’s semi-final against France, it was actually les Bleus who led early in Munich, only for Lamine Yamal to equalise with a wonder-strike, before Dani Olmo’s equally impressive solo goal soon after turned the tie around, and 2-1 is how it finished in Bavaria.
This means Spain have now won 14 consecutive competitive fixtures, hoisting the UEFA Nations League trophy aloft towards the start of this sequence, form that la Roja supporters will hope sees their side become the first team to win four European Championship titles.
Since the first staging of the competition in 1960, ten different national teams have won the 16 editions of this tournament, with England the only major nation to never have done so, although this current generation are now, potentially, 90 minutes away from making history.
After rather stumbling through their group, winning only once, Gareth Southgate’s team were on the brink of elimination at the hands of Slovakia, only for Jude Bellingham’s 95th minute bicycle-kick in Gelsenkirchen to save the day, before Harry Kane headed home the winner in extra time.
Six days later, the Three Lions fell behind again, this time against Switzerland, before Bukayo Saka’s curler to restored parity, meaning the tie in Düsseldorf was to be decided by penalties, with Jordan Pickford pulling off one save, while his teammates scored all five, and it was Trent Alexander-Arnold who converted the deciding kick.
The pattern then continued in the semi-finals on Wednesday, with Xavi Simons firing the Netherlands ahead after just seven minutes in Dortmund, with Harry Kane converting a spot-kick to make it 1-1 soon after, the penalty controversially awarded by Felix Zwayer following VAR review.
Then, just as the 60,000+ in attendance at Westfalenstadion, and the millions watching around the world, were all preparing for extra time, Cole Palmer played in fellow-substitute Ollie Watkins who, exactly as the clock struck 90, fired into the far corner, sparking wild scenes of jubilation.
So, for the very first time in the 152-year history of the English men’s national team, they have reached a major tournament final away from Wembley, with this their 32nd attempt at achieving this.
It’s already been a summer of so many emotions for Southgate and his team but, after experiencing the heartbreak of defeat in the most-recent Euros Final three summers ago, will this tournament have the fairytale ending in Berlin?
This will be the first encounter between these two nations for six years, while their last two major tournament meetings both finished goalless, these at the Bernabéu during Spain ’82 and then Wembley in the last eight of Euro ’96, with England winning the latter on penalties.
Every England fan would settle for a repeat of the latter come midnight local time at Olympiastadion, but forecasting a winner in the Germany capital is so tough. Prediction: Spain 2 England 1
Main Photo Credit: IMAGO: Spain, Marc Cucurella
