England vs Spain - Euros final 2024

Agree about Rice been over rated. He’s basically Jordan Henderson. Good engine & a leader who’s never lacking in commitment but is limited in possession.

You need a player who’s quality on the ball alongside him which is why the Rice / Gallagher partnership will never work.

 

No, not much difference, Spain won all 7 of their games, whereas England didn’t. That’s the difference

 

I'm not in the camp saying Rice is overrated, however, I have been saying since the tournament started that we should have been blooding Wharton. With him and Mainoo in the middle I believe we have 2 players that can do the solid defensive stuff, but can also play on the turn and get us driving forward.

 

Wharton is a Rolls Royce of a player but blooding him during a tournament wouldn't have been wise - he should have been given a decent run out in the pre-tournament friendlies. Also Southgate is the polar-opposite of a risk taker, we may as well have taken a squad of 16 to the Finals.

 

He's a better player for arsenal than England. You heard what van der vaart said about him? Very harsh.

 

Anyone else just not really bothered? Yes I wanted them to win - it would have been great for the country.....feelgood factor, all that malarkey, but I'm not feeling remotely upset this morning that they lost. England results just don't shape or define my week the way Barnsley results do.

 

The biggest disappointment about us losing is missing out on a potential extra bank holiday

 

I'm not too disappointed. We were extremely lucky to get past Slovakia and were outclassed by Spain even though they tried hard, Spain could have had 4 or 5 if they'd had their shooting boots on. Last Euros was more disappointing letting an ageing Italian team take us to penalties I've come to the conclusion that we're just.not as good as people think and that reaching a final is probably as good as its going to get.

 

Given he'd done enough in the friendlies to force his way into the squad, I think there have been a few opportunities to get him off the bench earlier in the tournament. Southgate instead chose to have Rice, Mainoo, Gallagher and Alexander-Arnold ahead of him. Gallagher should've been nowhere near, TAA is a right wing back, Rice constantly plays it too safe, and Mainoo does some stuff that looks good, but not sure what he's actually producing.

Wharton would've actually passed the ball to the attacking players, and would've been ideal for the style of play that Southgate was trying to play.

 

I’m still bothered but this one doesn’t hurt like the Italy one as I fully expected us to get beat last night. We actually put up a better showing than I thought we would. However the truth is they’ve looked a level above us all tournament & deserved it.

I’ve also always had a soft spot for Spain too so if we’re going to lose to anyone I’d rather it was them than Italy, France, Germany, Portugal etc.

 

It wasn`t so much England sitting back after the equaliser, Spain started to attack to win the game after themselves protecting their lead by slowly keeping possession of the ball and slowly building up to any opportunities of through balls to create chances. The equaliser forced them to start from scratch like they did at the first whistle upping the tempo.

 

Totally agree, should have been in the team for the whole of the friendlies, blooded ready to play in the tournament.

 

21 Pages!! We didn't get that many when talking about the attributes of Neil Collins. Let's get on with 'proper football'. COYR

 

This. I just have no emotional response to England results, in fact I’ve looked forward to all the other games not involving England more. I was actually rooting for Georgia at one point.

 

I feel pretty much as i did after the Barnsley v Ipswich play off final' its a lot easier to take when you've been well beaten and you just say well played and move on. I've criticized Southgate after pretty much every game but last night Spain were just too good' they played the high press brilliantly for the whole 90 mins' terrific energy levels.

 

100% arsenal well overpaid WHU saw them coming.

 

I enjoyed the game last neight, i'd like to congratulate Spain on their win, an being English we'll see you all again in 2026 [ World Cup ], an again in 2028 Euros ], not sure abart Southgate, has he been good or has he been lucky to av such a good squad, shoulda, coulda, woulda, won it with the players he had, opinions an arguments will be the norm for the next few months, but i dont care cos its our turn soon, C,O,Y, R, Oh Barnsley we love you.