England started Euro 2024 as one of the pre-tournament favorites but now go into Sunday’s final as underdogs as Spain have been the standout team in the tournament. La Roja made Euro history by winning all six games on the way to Berlin, eliminating hosts Germany and France along the way. We look at how England can up their game to end a 58-year wait to win a major tournament and beat three-time Euro champions Spain in the final.
Attack early
England relied on late goals to overtake Slovakia, Switzerland and the Netherlands and reach a second successive Euro final.
However, they needed extra time to beat Slovakia and went all the way to penalties against the Swiss in the quarter-finals.
Southgate also expressed concern about having one less day to recover from the semi-final.
For all the resilience England have shown, chasing the Spain game is a different beast.
The Spanish scored 500 passes in their semi-final victory over France to end the second half holding a 2-1 lead.
With some of England’s best players already showing signs of fatigue, a quick start is needed to shake Spain’s confidence.
Beat the press
Spain’s pressure has been one of the keys to their success in Germany.
No team forced more turnovers within 40 meters of the opponent’s goal, two of which resulted in goals.
One of England’s problems at the start of the tournament was not taking risks when taking the lead, even against opponents considered weaker.
In Berlin, they have to be brave to overcome the first wave of Spanish pressure and get to the spaces where they can do damage in the future.
Feed Foden and BellinghamSouthgate continued to start Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden in every tournament, despite both playing in the same role for their clubs last season as advanced midfielders.
The England manager finally got some reward in the semi-final against the Dutch, against a more attacking team, Foden and Bellingham found space to breathe life into a laborious attack.
Rodri, Foden’s Manchester City teammate, has looked supreme at every tournament in Spanish midfield.
But with Fabian Ruiz and Dani Olmo moving forward, Rodri is the only midfielder who should leave gaps for Bellingham and Foden to exploit if given the job.
Enjoy the experience
Despite Spain’s much greater pedigree in winning major tournaments, it is England who have the edge in terms of big-game experience.
Eight players from Southgate’s squad played in the penalty shootout defeat to Italy in the Euro 2020 final and England also have seven Champions League winners to Spain’s six.
“Quarter-finals, semi-finals, we’ve managed a lot of those games,” Southgate said on learning from the final three years ago.
“You’re definitely much better prepared because you learn from every experience you go through. You’re improving all the time.”
England must rely on this knowledge to overcome limits, even if it means resorting to the dark arts.
Germany adopted a violent approach to stop the two Spanish stars, Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, in the quarter-finals, and it largely worked.
Few in England will care how the job is done as they parade the trophy through central London on Monday.
Use the bank
Ollie Watkins’ injury-time goal to beat the Netherlands in the semi-final rewarded Southgate’s bold call to replace the Aston Villa striker with Harry Kane 10 minutes from time.
Too often during this tournament and during his tenure, Southgate has been too slow to turn to the bench to influence the game.
In both the 2018 World Cup semi-final against Croatia and the Euro 2020 final, England squandered an early lead as they slowly lost control of the game.
Cole Palmer, Ivan Toney and Kobbie Mainoo also made a big impact as substitutes early in the tournament.
Blessed with the strongest squad in the Euros, Southgate should use it sooner than he has so far, even if it means sacrificing one of his star names.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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