The Sports Buff ⚽️ ⚾️ 🏈

For England fans, even sleeping on it might not have helped, but one thing was for certain, yesterday’s agonising European Championship final defeat to Spain had a sense that this could have been avoided and what if?

La Rojas coming into the final were the form team and had a challenging route to get to the final in Berlin. Germany, France and England in the final were all beaten, which is no mean feat as all these sides have been former World Champions, but do have good sides at present.

The last-16 win over Georgia many would have said was expected, but this match was against an opponent who could have been a bit of a banana skin-like opponent, but Spain ruthlessly swatted them away to win 4-1.

It has to be said Germany 2024, wasn’t one of the best tournaments. Too many sides were just too cautious, England and France were some of those sides to name some.

The fans of both sides will no doubt be fuming that their sides weren’t able to make their mark on the tournament. A semi-final for France and a final for England respectively on paper seems good, but both sets of fans will be left thinking what if.

They say defence is the best form of attack, so it appeared easier for both sides to just play attacking. England in their semi-final, when they were able to exert themselves as an attacking force against Holland, were so much better for it.

Questions will be asked as to why Marcus Rashford wasn’t picked, James Maddison or Jack Grealish, but that’s not something Southgate can control. Every Golden Generation has its day and this England side was ready for its next step.

Also, it must be noted, that how would Gareth Southgate have known that Marc Guehi was ready for International football? The Crystal Palace man has been superb, but he could easily have been left on the sidelines in favour of a more conservative approach.

Cole Palmer is another player who has shown he belongs on the biggest stage/the biggest platform. As good as the England manager has been good at picking the right players, serious questions need to be asked as to how is he not able to make full use of Trent Alexander-Arnold.
The Liverpool man is arguably a generational talent.

But he’s weak defensively, yes! So are other England players.
To put my grievance into context, Spain winger Nico Williams is superb going forward, but not the best going back. If Williams was in the English side, he would have been arguably a squad player.

La Rojas are on the brink of building something special, they’re a world-class centre-forward away from building an epic team. Hard-working and very willing he is, but Alvaro Morata isn’t that player, the quicker Spain can get someone in, the better.

If the 2024 European Champions get this right, the rest of Europe should be warned that this team can dominate the world like the Spain squad did in the second decade of this century.

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