Gareth Southgate: 'We competed until the end'

Gareth Southgate admitted that Spain were deserved winners of UEFA EURO 2024 after they beat England 2-1 in the final in Berlin.

Cole Palmer had cancelled out Nico Williams’ opener, but substitute Mikel Oyarzabal fired home the winner four minutes from time.

England still had one final chance to level, Declan Rice and Marc Guehi both denied on the line, with very little splitting the teams.

However, the England manager accepted that with seven wins from seven in the tournament, Spain were deserving of their fourth European crown.

He said: "I think we’ve competed until the very end of the final. I think today we didn’t keep possession of the ball quite well enough, especially when we had defended well, you have moments where you have to get out of the pressure and we weren’t able to do that.

"In the end, that meant they had more control of the game and that can wear you down a bit.

Our #EURO2024 journey comes to an end at the final stage, as the #ThreeLions are beaten 2-1 by Spain. pic.twitter.com/3oUgFANkGW

— England (@England) July 14, 2024

"That said, we were still right in there when we got the equaliser, it was still wide open.

"We had a big chance at the end as well to equalise. As always in these games, it comes down to fine margins, but I think they have been the best team in the tournament and I think over the piece, they deserved to win.”

Southgate brought Palmer on with 20 minutes remaining, with the midfielder having an instant impact as his first-time strike levelled proceedings just three minutes later.

Prior to that, England skipper Harry Kane had been replaced by Ollie Watkins.

The manager added: "Physically, it’s been a tough period for Harry. He came in short of games and not quite got up to the level we would have all hoped.

“The games are hugely demanding and we felt Ollie’s freshness could help us press. I thought the two substitutes that came on did what we wanted them to really."