It was not a very good start by England as the Spanish team kept possession so easily, and England hardly had a kick in the first ten minutes.  Luckily, Spain did little with the ball until Nico Williams broke through from the left on 12 minutes and only a fine tackle by John Stones stopped the lively winger in his tracks. From the resultant corner an attempted overhead kick drifted wide of England's goal.

A couple of better attacks involving Bukayo Saka and Kyle Walker gave England a lift, but play generally was very scrappy, with Spain still dominating the ball.  When England did gain possession they almost always gave the ball away cheaply, and it was also noticeable that we rarely won the second balls.  When we did have possession, the first movement of each England player was to turn and face their own goalkeeper and pass the ball backwards.  Jordan Pickford was acting as an extra centre-half for much of the match.  On 24 minutes Harry Kane was booked for an innocuous challenge and four minutes later a shot by Fabian Ruiz deflected into Pickford's arms.  When England did clear the danger from a Spanish attack the ball was coming straight back at them again as the midfield failed to cope.

Several times Saka was in a good position to attack the full-back, but instead, he turned back towards his own goal and sent the ball back to a defender.  At one point he was level with the Spanish penalty box, but the ball ended back with Pickford!  A blocked shot from Alvaro Morata at one end, and another from Kane at the other end brought to an end a dismal half for England.  The only consolation was that Spain had created very little themselves.  Luke Shaw was keeping the young 17-year-old Lamine Yamal very quiet whilst Walker was handling the dangerous Williams well.

A minute from half-time, and England had their first shot on target.  A cross from the right clipped the head of a Spanish defender and dropped for Phil Foden to volley at goal.  It was an easy save for Unai Simon though, but a little more promising as the half ended.

England then made a disastrous start to the second-half as in the first minute, and for the first time, Shaw lost Yamal, who sped past the full-back with an angled run across the middle.  The other defenders were sucked in by this run, and Walker left Williams completely free on the left coming in.  The pass from Yamal was perfect and the shot from Williams beat Pickford all ends up.  On 49 minutes Daniel Olmo should have made it 2-0 but he missed a sitter as England tried to recover from the setback of conceding a goal and for a while were all over the place at the back.  Stones was booked for one desperate challenge, but far worse challenges by the Spanish were not punished as severely.  At this point the game was slipping away from England and changes were needed from the bench.  On the hour the disappointing Kane was taken off to be replaced by Ollie Watkins.  After 64 minutes Jude Bellingham tried a shot that went wide as England tried to gain a foothold again.

Two minutes later it was Pickford to the rescue with a fine save from Yamal's low shot after more poor defending failed to clear the ball.  One of the features of this match was the number of times an England player was caught in possession, that was certainly credit to Spain, as they looked fresher and fitter than England at this stage.  More changes were needed and in the 70th minute Gareth Southgate sent on Cole Palmer for Kobbie Mainoo, who hadn't had the impact that he had in the Holland match.  Immediately Palmer was in the action, and three minutes after coming on the substitute had a big say in the game.  For the first time Saka decided to run at the defence and straight away that caused danger for Spain as his cross went to Bellingham.  The pass was slightly behind the midfield player but he managed to stretch his leg out to knock the ball back to Palmer coming in behind him.  The Chelsea player didn't hesitate and side-footed a sublime shot into the far corner to the joy of all England fans watching.  Another move from Palmer to Saka again forced Spain into some desperate defending and for the first time in the match England were asking the questions.

As we entered the last ten minutes, Pickford was called upon to make another fine save from Yamal again, who had been sensational throughout the tournament.  Spain won a couple of corners that were cleared but then came the match-winning moment.  A breakaway down the left saw Marc Cucurella completely unchallenged on the left, and he had the simple task of passing into the path of substitute Mikel Oyarzabel who gave Pickford no chance with a close range shot.  We all hoped that what looked as though he was in an offside position would be another correction by VAR.  Sadly, this time the goal was given.

The goal celebration lasted at least three to four minutes, plus several substitutions, plus several slight injury stoppages, but when the 90 minute mark came along the referee added just four extra minutes!  However there was time for just one more chance, well three actually, for England to stay in the game, and it was an amazing moment.

A corner by Palmer was met by Declan Rice storming in to meet the ball with his head.  The goalkeeper somehow kept that out, but the ball lobbed up to Guehi who headed towards goal.  Olmo was on the line to head that effort away, but then Rice, following up, headed just over from the second rebound.  Unbelievable!  The Spanish celebrated that let-off as though they had won the cup, and a few seconds later, they had!  So near yet so far for England.

So, alas, it wasn't to be, yet again!  Let's start with the positives, England did really well to get to this final, not playing particularly well, but always finding a way to get through the games.  We should be very proud about that.  The emergence of Marc Guehi as a top class defender, the impact Palmer had when he came on, and the battling qualities of the whole team, epitomised what is brilliant about the English never-say-die football.  Some great goals, some super individual performances and I'm sure that all the other 22 sides competing would have given their eye teeth to achieve what England have achieved.

So, where did it all go wrong for us?  It has to be said that we did not get the best out of our top players that do so well in club football.  Why was that?  Tiredness, possibly, playing players out of position, maybe, too many negative tactics, almost certainly.  How many times in the final did we pass the ball forwards, compared to passing it backwards?  Why is it drilled into all the players to, “Keep it tight?”  This can't be right surely, not when we have some of the best attacking players in World football.  Why do we not encourage our players to put pressure on the opposition a little more?  We could see Spain panicking quite a bit after Palmer's goal.

I will leave you with your own thoughts, but my overriding feeling is that we have missed a huge opportunity to break that 58 year hoodoo waiting for a trophy, and until we play to OUR ATTACKING strengths then we may have to wait for a good number of years to come.

Oh well, all I have to worry about now is the scorelines of Preston North End.  More heartache probably!
         

Source Notes