Spain beat England 2-1 to lift its 4th European football title

Berlin: Spain is the king of European football for a record fourth time. For England, it’s another agonizing near-miss in the team’s decades-long tale of underachievement.

Completing a tournament the team dominated from start to finish, Spain beat England 2-1 in the European Championship final on Sunday with Mikel Oyarzabal the unlikely match-winner in the 86th minute.

Oyarzabal, a backup striker who came on as a substitute for captain Alvaro Morata, slid in to poke home a left-wing cross by Marc Cucurella, just when the game at Berlin’s Olympiastadion seemed destined for extra time.

England, the birthplace of football, is still without a major title in the men’s game since winning the 1966 World Cup and its players watched on forlornly as Morata raised aloft the silver trophy to backdrop of confetti and fireworks inside the stadium built for the 1936 Olympics.

Add 2024 to the titles won by Spain in 1964, 2008 and 2012.

“Here we are, champions of Europe,” said Nico Williams, whose opening goal for Spain in the 47th minute was canceled out by England substitute Cole Palmer in the 73rd. “We are thrilled and hope this can keep going and we can go for the (2026) World Cup.”

Lamine Yamal, the prodigy who turned 17 on Saturday and is the youngest player to have appeared at a European Championship, set up Williams’ goal with an inside run before passing across the face of the area.

The two wingers have become the poster boys of an exciting, multicultural team that reflects Spain’s changing demographics.

Yamal’s mother is from Equatorial Guinea and his father is from Morocco, while the 22-year-old Williams has Ghanaian parents who made the long journey to Europe looking for a better life.

To make it to Spain, they had to ride on the back of a crowded truck and walk barefoot through the Sahara desert.

“I believe there is a historical change, we are really grateful,” said Williams, the player of the match with his darting runs and his second goal of Euro 2024.

“My parents have suffered a lot to get here. They are the ones who have suffered the most and they have instilled this sort of respect and loyalty in me,” he said. “I’m really happy because we are making history.”

Unlike his brother Inaki, who is a Ghana international, Nico chose to play for Spain and will now be regarded as a national hero there.

Spain is back as a major player in senior football after winning both the Women’s World Cup — also against England — and the men’s UEFA Nations League in 2023.

Since 2001, Spanish men’s teams have won 23 consecutive major finals in club and international soccer.

“I said before the tournament, nobody can hang with us,” Williams said.

Spain won all seven games at this European Championship — an unprecedented feat — and broke the record for goals scored in a single tournament, with 15.

There were joyous scenes after the final whistle, with defender Dani Carvajal piled on by jubilant teammates after slumping to the ground.

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente was thrown into the air by his players. Both Cucurella and Yamal led Spain’s players in jumping over

the advertising boards to reach the red-and-yellow-clad Spanish fans in the stadium’s east end.

“This is the best (birthday) gift I could have asked for,” Yamal said. “It is a dream come true.”

After getting his medal, the teenager turned and shook his fist in celebration, stuck his tongue out and showed off a beaming grin. By then, Yamal and his team mates were wearing Spain jerseys with “Kings of Europe” and the number “4” on the back.

Meanwhile, fans who had watched the game

on a big screen in Madrid celebrated wildly, chanting “champions, champions” in Spanish.

It was a great sporting day for the nation, with Carlos Alcaraz winning the Wimbledon men’s singles title for a second straight year hours before the Euro 2024 final.

As for England, the men’s team has now lost back-to-back Euro finals — it was defeated in a penalty shootout by Italy on home soil in the

final in 2021 — and this was another painful loss for a team that will have gone six decades without a major title by the next World Cup.