Euro 2024: Will it be the beautiful game or football coming home that triumphs?
Lamine Yamal scores a wonder goal against France.
Tomorrow’s final sees the culmination of a great month of tournament football, with the meeting of the generally regarded best side in the tournament, in Spain, facing the, if not worst side in the competition, the generally accepted least inspiring side, in England.
Spain’s journey to the final has been marked by high tempo attacking football and deep-press defending. England’s route has been a more laboured journey of retaining possession followed by out-of-the-blue late strikes on goal and get-out-of-jail victories.
Spain has been a blending of exciting young talent in the fabulous kid-stars of Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, with the more experienced but equally thrilling talents of Rodri, Dani Olmo and Alvaro Morata.
England have been a head-scratching amalgamation of respected talent, that on any given game this tournament, looked bewildered as to what position and role they were playing. Yet each game, they have found a way to survive and by the semi-final even discovered the genuine potential to win the entire tournament.
This is the classic final confrontation of divergent clichéd paths to the decider. The side that has led from the front, winning in style from beginning to end, against the side that has (being generous) grown into the tournament with each game, struggling to control their opponents, but finding a way to persevere.
Spain have had the harder route to the final. Coming out of a group of death, they beat reigning Euro champs Italy, World Cup third-place finishers Croatia and a plucky Albanian team. They comfortably removed the valiant Georgians in the Round of 16, 4-1, before removing the next best team in the tournament, Germany, in a hard-hitting and rough-tackling encounter. Their reward a meeting with the World Cup finalists and most successful side for the past decade in France. Going behind for the first time in the tournament, they showed their mettle to overwhelm the French with a combination of breathtaking goals from Yamal and Olmo and denying France possession for the last quarter of the game. Imagine, denying the ball to a side containing Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele and N’Golo Kante.
England, on the other hand, won only one game in their group and only managed draws against pretty average Danish and Slovenian sides. Their theme of finding late goals and breaking opponent hearts commenced with the Round of 16 win over Slovakia and the 91- and 95-minute extra time goals from Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham.
The Swiss fell in the penalty shootout, after an 81-minute Bukayo Saka equaliser in the quarter final. And then there was the 91-minute killer for the Dutch by Ollie Watkins in the semis. All very ragged, haphazard, and lucky for the English, except for the last one.
Wednesday’s match was England’s first win in regulation time since their first game in the group against Serbia. And arguably it was the only one they fully deserved to win. That it was against the best side they had encountered to that point is a credit to their progression and was the first time we got see their players play the way we have witnessed them in the Premier League. Finally, Phil Foden looked somewhat like the superstar he is in Man City. He even had a replica shot to Yamal’s wonder goal in the previous semi-final, but Foden’s strike just edged past the post. John Stones and Kyle Walker were accomplished at the back and on the wing. Kobbie Mainoo showed that Spain are not the only side with promising teenage talent, While Watkins, Luke Shaw, and Cole Plamer came on to show the side’s depth.
Now there are questions about the Dutch. They looked very leggy and maybe the exertions of the Turkey game took it out of them. Whatever it was, they allowed England acres of space and ridiculous time on the ball. One cannot imagine the Spanish being so generous. The Dutch morale strangely collapsed too after the English penalty equaliser, despite having such a great start with Xavi Simons’ rocket to the net after just seven minutes.
It was like the sides swapped shirts. The English became assured on the ball and completed their passes. The Dutch reverted to desperate clearances, speculative balls forward, and over-the-top lobs. Resulting in the Dutch rarely looking like they'd get the winner, but England did.
England boss Gareth Southgate has put up with a lot of abuse for his conservative selections and tactics in this tournament, but if he can swing this one in the final, he’d have pulled off the kind of subterfuge that would impress Keyser Soze.
The Spanish will be hot favourites among football fans and on what they have shown us so far — their élan and desire to play the game at its very best — they deserve the crown. The only thing is, they have not had a bad game yet and most teams have at least one hiccup in a tournament. And then there is that nagging fear. The way England have pulled undeserving draws and wins out of the fire. The seemingly fate-like way they’ve stumbled to get through games. And the fact that in a cup final, one v one, anything can happen, fills you with the dread that football may indeed be coming home.
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