Spain beat England at the Olympiastadion in Berlin on Sunday to win the European Championship for a record fourth time. theScore covered the biggest moments and plays in real time below.
Spain 2-1 England 
What you need to know 
- Substitute Mikel Oyarzabal won Euro 2024 for Spain with a toe poke in the 86th minute. Replays showed John Stones kept Oyarzabal onside in the buildup to the goal.
- Cole Palmer canceled out Nico Williams’ opener three minutes after coming on for Kobbie Mainoo. It was Palmer’s first goal of the tournament.
- Rodri was substituted at halftime after suffering an apparent injury. Martin Zubimendi, who had logged just 94 minutes in Germany, replaced Rodri.
Goodbye! 
That’s all, folks! We’re wrapping up our coverage of the Euro 2024 final as Spain takes the celebrations back home.
Thanks for following along, and check out theScore’s Top Soccer News section for additional reaction to the final.
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What’s next for England? 
FT: Spain 2-1 England
The postmortem of England’s latest shortcoming at the European Championships begins. It’s now the only team to have ever lost back-to-back Euro finals, a black mark on a program that’s sick of losing and a little too used to it.
England came agonizingly close on both occasions, falling to Italy in a shootout and conceding the winner to Spain with minutes left in regulation. But that tells only half the story. The bottom line is that England didn’t play all that well at Euro 2024, and when the magic finally ran out, so did its chances of hoisting the trophy for the first time.
Though Gareth Southgate’s substitutions were spot-on throughout the Euro, the fact England always needed a helping hand from the bench underlined just how underwhelming it had been. The approach seemed too safe from the outset, and while the likes of Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane, Ollie Watkins, and Cole Palmer all did heroic things, England never came together as a team. It couldn’t play a full 90 minutes in Germany. It conceded first in every one of its knockout matches. The final was a bridge too far.
Afterward, Southgate spoke like a man who knew he had done all he could to get England over the line. And he did an exceptional job. He restored pride in the national team after Sam Allardyce’s embarrassing resignation in 2016 and helped develop the players who form the core of this team. No England coach had ever reached multiple finals before. A knighthood should still be under consideration given the emotions he’s helped inspire in England and the dignified way in which he’s led the national team. His sense of empathy and understanding are rare traits in management.
But the time to win is now. Southgate had four good goes at it. It would just be a shame for England to waste yet another golden generation.
Rodri can’t be stopped 
FT: Spain 2-1 England
That’s just an absurd stat.
Since the start of 2023, Rodri has won more trophies (8) than he has lost games (4).
Serial winner.
pic.twitter.com/56hwtkbVcx
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) July 14, 2024
Big-game Oyarzabal 
FT: Spain 2-1 England
Mikel Oyarzabal isn’t your typical striker – he’s more of a roamer and space invader than a prolific striker – so his introduction in the 68th minute for captain Alvaro Morata raised eyebrows. But coach Luis de la Fuente has always trusted Oyarzabal. He coached him on Spain’s U19 team and made him a vice captain of the senior side shortly after he succeeded Luis Enrique on the bench. Oyarzabal also knows how to handle big moments. He dispatched the penalty that won Real Sociedad the 2020 Copa del Rey.
De la Fuente sweeps 
FT: Spain 2-1 England
Luis de la Fuente coached virtually every youth level before taking over the Spanish national team in 2022 and won almost every tournament he’s entered.
Luis de la Fuente becomes the first manager to win the Under-19 Euros, Under-21 Euros, Nations League and European Championship.
— The Coaches’ Voice (@CoachesVoice) July 14, 2024
Southgate: England in ‘good’ spot 
FT: Spain 2-1 England
Gareth Southgate is gracious in victory and defeat. In conversation with BBC One, the England coach offers a measured assessment of the final but refuses to say whether he’ll stay in the job.
“We’ve competed until the very end of the final. I think today we didn’t keep possession of the ball quite well enough. We defended well, but when you win the ball back, you need to get out of that pressure. And we weren’t able to do that. That meant they had more control of the game, and that can wear you down a bit.
“That said, we got the equalizer, and then it was wide open. A big chance at the end to equalize so as always it is fine margins. I do think (Spain) were the best team in the tournament.
“England are in a really good position in terms of the experience they have. Most of this squad will be around for the World Cup and the next Euros. There’s a lot to look forward to but at this moment it’s not any consolation.”
King Charles: ‘Hold your heads high’
FT: Spain 2-1 England
King Charles III provides a message of support to England’s national team:
“Although victory may have eluded you this evening, nevertheless my wife and I join all my family in urging you and your support team to hold your heads high.
“All those who have participated in sporting activities at any level will know how utterly despairing such a result can feel when the prize was so near – and will join me in sending heartfelt sympathy, even as we congratulate Spain. But please know that your success in reaching the European Championship final is a really great achievement in itself, and one that brings with it the pride of a nation which will continue to roar for the Three Lions today – and in the many triumphs which I have no doubt lie ahead.”
Spain just wins finals 
FT: Spain 2-1 England
Facing a Spanish team in a major final guarantees sadness.
Since May 2001, Spanish teams have played in 27 major finals (Champions League, Europa League, World Cup, Euros). There has been a Spanish winner in all 27 finals.
— Colin Millar (@Millar_Colin) July 14, 2024
Kane: ‘Opportunity missed’
FT: Spain 2-1 England
Harry Kane gives ITV his thoughts after the final:
“It’s an opportunity missed. These finals aren’t easy to get to. You have to take it when it comes and we haven’t done it again. It’s extremely painful and it’ll hurt for a long time.”
Rodri named Player of the Tournament 
FT: Spain 2-1 England
Rodri may have come off at halftime, but he had already established a significant impact at Euro 2024. The 28-year-old kept Spain’s operation ticking along with exceptional passing and inch-perfect tackling.
Spain crowns perfect run 
FT: Spain 2-1 England
Spain is the first men’s team to win every game at a European Championship, beating Croatia, Italy, Albania, Georgia, Germany, France, and England to go a perfect 7-0-0. That’s some hit list. Spain’s 15 goals are also the most scored by a team in a single Euro.
Deserved win for Spain 
FT: Spain 2-1 England
Spain generated nearly four times the chances as England and controlled the lion’s share of a possession in a final it deserved to win.
| Spain | England | |
|---|---|---|
| 63% | Possession | 37% |
| 14 | Shots | 9 |
| 5 | On Target | 3 |
| 2.31 | xG | 0.63 |
| 15 | Clearances | 27 |
| 8 | Blocks | 21 |
SPAIN WINS EURO 2024!
FT: Spain 2-1 England
And the final whistle goes! Mikel Oyarzabal’s goal in the 86th minute wins a record fourth European Championship for Spain and condemns England to a second consecutive defeat in the final.
GOAL-LINE CLEARANCE 
90′ Spain 2-1 England
Dani Olmo keeps the game from going to extra time with an incredible header off the goaline.
OLMO SAVES IT OFF THE LINE FOR SPAIN
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) July 14, 2024
GOAL SPAIN! 
86′ Spain 2-1 England
Is that the winner? Mikel Oyarzabal pokes it past Jordan Pickford after receiving a perfectly weighted pass from Marc Cucurella in the penalty area and beating the offside trap.
These are the margins between national joy and despair. pic.twitter.com/IgvBBY5CX4
— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) July 14, 2024
Pickford saves again 
82′ Spain 1-1 England
Another exceptional save by Jordan Pickford denies Lamine Yamal after a slick move by Spain’s attackers. Nico Williams drives forward and links up with Dani Olmo on the edge of the area, and Yamal ends up running into space before forcing Pickford into a theatrical stop.
GOAL ENGLAND!
73′ Spain 1-1 England
It’s not an England match without a comeback. Bukayo Saka goes on a great run down the right before finding Jude Bellingham in the box, and Bellingham plays it back for substitute Cole Palmer to drive it into the bottom left corner. Just like that – and like most of England’s goals – the Three Lions have life. And it’s another one of Gareth Southgate’s substitutes that keeps England alive.
Big stop by Pickford 
66′ Spain 1-0 England
England ‘keeper Jordan Pickford stretches wide to deny Lamine Yamal’s attempt on the run. It’s a great save and his 16th of the tournament.
Close call for Bellingham 
64′ Spain 1-0 England
Jude Bellingham is trying to drag England back into the match. Receiving the ball around 20 yards from goal, the Real Madrid midfielder turns three defenders with a sterling touch but narrowly misses the net.
No letup from Spain 
59′ Spain 1-0 England
It’s one-way traffic in Berlin, where La Roja are pushing for a second goal. England is struggling to stick with Spain’s gifted runners, and it has cost Kane any further participation at Euro 2024, with coach Gareth Southgate taking off England’s ineffective striker for Ollie Watkins.
GOAL SPAIN!
47′ Spain 1-0 England
Moments after Rodri came off in a potential game-changing substitution, Nico Williams combines with Lamine Yamal to put Spain in the lead. Under pressure from three defenders, Yamal slips a pass out wide to Williams, who’s unmarked on the edge of the area. Williams finds the bottom corner with ease.
Edgy half comes to an end 
HT: Spain 0-0 England
A half that started in England’s ended in Spain’s as the Three Lions slowly worked their way back into the game and generated the game’s first shot on target in the 45th minute. Both sides produced desperate blocks to keep the game goalless.
| Spain | England | |
|---|---|---|
| 66% | Possession | 34% |
| 4 | Shots | 3 |
| 0 | On Target | 1 |
| 0.25 | xG | 0.22 |
| 6 | Clearances | 14 |
| 5 | Blocks | 13 |
Atmosphere getting tense 
31′ Spain 0-0 England
Tackles are flying and Dani Olmo is the next player in referee Francois Letexier’s book after catching Declan Rice in the leg. The play is a little bit jittery and the players are mistiming their challenges.
Tough start for Kane 
25′ Spain 0-0 England
Harry Kane had just two touches in the first 25 minutes, and his frustration seemed to boil over when he went in late on Fabian Ruiz for the first yellow card of the match.
Fans celebrate Stones’ tackle 
11′ Spain 0-0 England
John Stones has already had to deal with Nico Williams’ pace and trickery, but is wise to it with a perfectly timed tackle that the English fans in Berlin celebrated like a goal.
All ball for Spain 
10′ Spain 0-0 England
Spain has absolutely owned the opening 10 minutes of Sunday’s final with a whopping 82% possession of the ball. England has tried to play out of its half but without much success. How long can it stay like this?
We’re off!
And the Euro 2024 final is live in Berlin. Kobbie Mainoo kicks off with a backpass to Jordan Pickford, and the goalkeeper kicks it long for a Spanish goal kick. It’s an incredible atmosphere inside the Olympiastadion.
Predictions are in! 
It’s nearly unanimous save for one ambitious England fan.
alrady: Spain 2-1
OGMJ: Spain 2-0
AlbertCoholic: England 4-0
By the numbers 
Stats aren’t everything, but these numbers are pretty telling.
3: England’s three consecutive comeback wins in the knockout stage are the joint-most all time at the Euros.
13: Entering the final, Spain has 13 goals at Euro 2024, one shy of the single-tournament record set by France in 1984.
58.8%: Surprisingly, England has averaged a higher rate of possession than Spain at Euro 2024. Spain isn’t as obsessed with this number anyway. It’s playing a much more vertical game than its predecessors and taking more risks in the final third.
21,169: How many days have passed since England’s men’s team last won a major tournament. The Three Lions’ one and only triumph came in the 1966 World Cup final, which they hosted at Wembley Stadium. Sunday’s final is the first England has ever played on foreign soil.
A win for youth development 
No matter the winner of Sunday’s final, the presence of these two teams confirms the importance of youth development. Both Spain and England have had success in the youth circuit in recent years, with England winning the U21 Euros in 2023 and the U19 Euros in 2022, and beating Spain 5-2 in the U17 World Cup final in 2017. Current English internationals Marc Guehi, Conor Gallagher, and Phil Foden all played for that U17 side.
Phil Foden & Marc Guehi scored—Foden twice—when they last played Spain in a final, at the 2017 U17 World Cup.
An England team also containing Conor Gallagher beat Spain 5-2. Same again Sunday?
— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) July 13, 2024
Both coaches have also had a hand in their countries’ development. Gareth Southgate coached England’s U21s for three years before taking charge of the senior team in 2016. Luis de la Fuente, meanwhile, oversaw Spain’s U19, U21, and U23 sides before taking the men’s gig in 2022 as Luis Enrique’s successor.
Get involved 
Have your say! We want to hear from you. Post any questions and insights you may have in the comments below, and we’ll repost the very best ones throughout the day.
Does Southgate get too much hate? 
Gareth Southgate has had beers thrown at him, questions asked of him, and the weight of a nation placed upon him. People made jokes about Southgate wearing a life jacket to a bath and memes of him scribbling nonsense in the middle of matches. Critics thought his football was too safe to win anything at Euro 2024. And yet here he is, one match away from leading England to its first-ever European Championship.
But how much credit can he take for England’s run to the final? Objectively speaking, his team hasn’t played well. It has won three of its six matches in Germany with an expected non-penalty goal difference of -0.7, meaning it has conceded more genuine scoring chances than it has generated. Those wins also owe a lot to the individual brilliance of Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane, and Ollie Watkins, scorer of England’s 90th-minute semifinal winner.
But it was Southgate’s decision to keep Bellingham and Kane on the pitch in the round of 16 against Slovakia. Their goals eventually secured England’s passage to the quarterfinals. It was Southgate’s decision to throw on Ivan Toney and Trent Alexander-Arnold in the quarterfinals against Switzerland. Their penalties helped England win the shootout. And it was Southgate’s decision to throw on Watkins with less than nine minutes to go against the Dutch. His goal got them to Berlin.
Shaw returns to England XI 
Gareth Southgate makes just one change to the team that beat the Netherlands in the semifinals, and it’s a big one: Luke Shaw will start for England for the first time in over a year. Shaw missed the last three months of Manchester United’s season due to injury but retained his place in Southgate’s squad and made appearances off the bench in the quarterfinals and semifinals. Kieran Trippier drops to the bench, but Kobbie Mainoo keeps his place in midfield after starting in England’s previous three knockout matches.
Jordan Pickford; Kyle Walker, John Stones, Marc Guehi; Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo, Luke Shaw; Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden; Harry Kane
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 14, 2024
A glance at each finalist 
Sunday’s final is a game between ideas and cold-blooded assassins. The Spanish have turned tiki-taka into a more progressive form of football that grants freedom to its most creative players. The English, meanwhile, have relied on individual talent to produce game-changing moments.
They took much different paths to Berlin. Spain fought off Georgia, Germany, and France to reach the final and played some seriously aggressive football to beat all three. England benefited from a kinder draw against Slovakia, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, and required extra time and a shootout to beat the first two.
Related: Everything you need to know about Euro 2024 final
Spain coach Luis de la Fuente has praised his players for the collective effort they’ve shown over the last month. While Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo, and Nico Williams have each inspired Spain to victory, they’re not the only reasons La Roja have made it this far. Fabian Ruiz’s runs into the box have heaped pressure on opponents, and Rodri has done an excellent job keeping things clean in midfield. Spain’s defense has only allowed three goals all tournament, and one of them was an own goal.
Even if England has had an easier route, it hasn’t necessarily had an easier time. If not for Jude Bellingham’s 95th-minute overhead kick against Slovakia, he and his teammates would’ve been watching the final from home. Whether by design or not, England has played largely safe football in Germany, and although it finally sprang to life in the first half of its semifinal against the Dutch, that spell only lasted 45 minutes. Ollie Watkins scored off the bench in the 90th to snatch another victory for the English.
Spain XI released early
The lineups usually come out an hour before kickoff, but Spain has avoided any potential leaks by releasing its starting 11 nearly two hours early. Not that there are any surprises anyway. Robin Le Normand replaces Nacho Fernandez at center-back after serving a one-match suspension for yellow card accumulation, Dani Olmo retains his place in the lineup after relieving the injured Pedri in Spain’s quarterfinal win over Germany, and Lamine Yamal, now 17, earns his sixth start of the tournament. Yamal is the youngest player to feature in a Euro final.
Unai Simon; Dani Carvajal, Robin Le Normand, Aymeric Laporte, Marc Cucurella; Rodri, Fabian Ruiz; Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo, Nico Williams; Alvaro Morata
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 14, 2024
Welcome!
Good afternoon! Welcome to theScore’s live coverage of the Euro 2024 final between Spain and England.
Before we get into it, let’s do a little housekeeping. You’ll find everything you need to know about Sunday’s title match right here, including all the pre-match hype, play-by-play of key moments, and our thoughts and analysis before and after the trophy is lifted. Swipe down to refresh the page and follow along as the big game progresses.
Now, the fun part begins. Spain is looking to win a record fourth European Championship, while England bids for its first major men’s title in 58 long years. The oddsmakers see Spain as the favorite, and it’s understandable: Spain has won all six matches at Euro 2024, while England has a split 3-3-0 record. But it’s one match, and the Three Lions have demonstrated an uncanny ability to turn matches on their head in the most critical moments.
Keep theScore on hand as we navigate the ups and downs of what should be a thrilling final.
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