Morning all.
Spain are European champions after a 2-1 win over England in Berlin last night. The first half is barely worth talking about, so little happened, but the second began with a flourish. Lamine Yamal got away from Luke Shaw, and played a ball across the box to the effervescent Nico Williams (pls Edu, get the BBQmobile on the road to Bilbao), the first time finish with his left foot left Jordan Pickford stranded and it was 1-0.
The goal came minutes after Spain emerged for the second half without Rodri, something which ought to have given England a boost, but as he has been throughout this tournament, Harry Kane’s presence up top was a more significant handicap than the opposition losing the best defensive midfielder in the world. I took a lot of stick on Twitter this week after I suggested Ollie Watkins should start the final in Kane’s place, and it’s not that I give a fish’s tit about salty Sp*rs fans in my mentions, but England needed Gareth Southgate to be brave with his team selection and he wasn’t.
When the Aston Villa man came on, he made a difference. Kane was turgid, slow, old, probably unfit – and the evidence of that was obvious to anyone with eyes throughout this tournament. I understand loyalty, I understand his stature and reputation and history, but those things are nice to talk about in books after a career is done. They don’t help you win matches at major tournaments when it’s clear a player is not at the required level.
Spain could have scored more, Pickford made a couple of good saves, but then Bukayo Saka burst down the right, he found Jude Bellingham whose layoff to substitute Cole Palmer was lovely, and the finish unerring. All of a sudden it was 1-1, and game on again. It looked as if we were heading for extra-time but Kyle Walker was too slow again (how Trent Alexander-Arnold barely got a look-in at right-back is astonishing to me), Marc Cucurella put in an excellent ball from the left hand side, and Mikel…
Source link : https://arseblog.com/2024/07/euro-2024-final-the-best-team-won/
Author : arseblog
Publish date : 2024-07-15 05:52:06
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