England have set an unwanted European Championship record against Spain.
The Three Lions suffered a late sucker punch as Mikel Oyarzabal netted an 86th minute winner to see Spain claim Euro 2024 with a 2-1 win over England.
England’s wait for a trophy now enters it’s 60th year.
Nico Williams scored the opener just two minutes after half-time, only for Cole Palmer to equalise in the 75th minute.
However, Oyarzabal’s late strike secured Spain’s first European Championship triumph since 2012.
In losing England’s wait for a second major tournament triumph goes on, while Southgate’s men have now become the first team in Euro history to lose two consecutive finals.
Speaking on the defeat, Southgate to the BBC: “It’s easy to say [it’s one game too far] and there’s definitely a disadvantage to having a day less to prepare, but we were still in the game at 80 minutes.
“It’s going to take a while to pick the bones out of it. Physically, it’s been a tough period for Harry [Kane]. He came in short of games and didn’t quite get up to the level we’d all hope.
“We felt Ollie [Watkins’] freshness would allow us to press a bit better and offer us a threat in behind. I thought they both did what we wanted.”
Southgate added: “We’ve competed until the very end of the final, today we didn’t keep possession of the ball well enough.
England have lost consecutive Euro finals (Getty)
“Especially when we’d defended well, they press you really well and you’ve got 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 were still right in there when we got the equaliser, the game was still wide open.
“As always in these games, it’s fine margins – but they were the best team in the tournament. Over the piece, they deserved it.”
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