Cr7 Winning Euro
Clide Birkner
Spain's statistics in winning Euro 2024 are so historic and so startling that it's easy to be overwhelmed and distracted by them. But in the end, Sunday's victory over England in the final came down to what they do best and what has been an eternal question about a footballer: "how's your first touch?"
La Roja are the only team to win six or more matches at a Euro, they have the oldest player to win one (Jess Navas), the youngest ever to play, assist or score at one (Lamine Yamal), the national team and Spain's clubs have won every major European final they've been in since 2001, they top-scored here, they beat every other European World Cup winner (England, Germany, France, Italy), no nation has ever won more Euros than Spain, they are Euro and Nations League holders at men's and women's level. Rodri has lost once in 81 club and country matches.
Look at Spain's opening goal in Berlin. It was built from the back: England were either too scared to press high or unable to physically, meaning there was a free pass out from the back to Dani Carvajal. The man who, in June, became only the second guy ever to start six winning Champions League finals, did the special thing.
Full-backs used to be foot soldiers. Now they are hybrid wingers and match winners; they're expected to be able to add pizzazz and all that jazz. Carvajal let the ball come on to him and then he produced a one-touch, outside of the boot flick. He was loosely boxed in by Jude Bellingham inside him and Luke Shaw down the line. If his flick failed, and his risk acceptance wasn't matched by a technically exquisite touch, then Shaw (maybe the best distributor of the ball in England's side) or Bellingham (touched by God's magic) would take possession and Spain would be open and exposed.
Late, late at night, deep in the heart of that strange, iconic, troubling Olympic Stadium, I had the fortune to sit down with Nico Williams. He was still beaming, while I was trying to keep the joy off my face. He told me about the moment of "not knowing how to celebrate my goal and trying 50 different rubbish things!"
What I loved, having eulogised Carvajal's beautiful one-touch volley flick, was Williams instantly calculating that although Dani Olmo had dragged the faultless Kyle Walker "inside," he still simply had to finish first time " "or Walker would still have blocked me," Nico emphasised to me.
Not that long ago, the captain of la Real had been out of the game for more than a year with injury. Back then, the lonely, fibre-testing, gritty road to recovery had left him looking stripped of a bit of pace, uncertain. Damaged. But what the Spain school taught Carvajal, taught Nico, and taught David Silva, Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Leo Messi, in their day, was that technique is king. Oyarzabal hits his pass to the overlapping Cucurella on the first touch ("primer toque") and thus, like with Carvajal, the momentum is unstoppable. Minor gaps that England might have left suddenly mushroom into chasms.
Oyarzabal calculated that he might have left his pass too short, not far enough in front of Cucurella; he'd also calculated that the full back would have to hit it first time from the wing, and so Oyarzabal ran. He took a chance. His first touch allowed him the chance to run beyond Marc Guhi and to score the winning goal in a European Championship.
What got Spain past England was their technical skills, plus brains that think differently, accept risk and put the flow of the ball on the line so that all opposition -- defensive or offensive -- can be cut open.
Before the match, Cucurella, who really hadn't been sure of his place in Spain's squad until Jos Gay got injured for Valencia in late May, told me that it was a "present" to be starting in a Euro final. He said "I'm going to try to enjoy myself because if we all enjoy ourselves, then we'll be that much closer to winning." Two-and-a-half hours later, he was proved 100% right. A great cross, a great run from "Bigfoot" (who thanked David Moyes for having given him his debut all those years ago for la Real away to Levante), a great goal. Game over.
And they did all of this without Gavi (invited there as a guest during his knee injury rehab), without Pedri (brutally hacked out of this tournament by Toni Kroos in the quarterfinals) and without Rodri (surely the Ballon D'Or winner-elect) for the second half against a good and threatening England side.
Words don't fail me. This was an epic triumph. This was good for football. Ignore the idea that this is a more "enjoyable" Spain side because it's more vertical and direct than the football via which they won in 2010 and 2012. They have the same ideas: have the ball, press and win it back whenever it's lost, attack, confuse the opponent, use superior tactics and technique. Play to win. At all times.
These things have not changed one iota over the 16 years since La Roja started their winning spree in 2008. Pay attention fans, journalists, coaches and players alike: these are the basic ingredients for greatness. Too many other nations, clubs, fan bases, media organisations still don't understand this or place enough importance on it.
At the end, in this stadium where the mighty Jesse Owens ran like the wind to win four Gold Medals at the 1936 Olympics and, as a by-product, showed a hostile crowd that you can never, ever keep the human spirit down and subjugated, Nico Williams sprinted off. He was looking for his mum. He wanted to immediately give her his medal because, as he said, "I'm the champion of Europe, but she's the champion of life."
Spain play like no one else, and it brings joy. They speak like nobody else, in my opinion, using a vocabulary full of touchy-feely, human, warm, family-oriented words. In combination, those things have made La Roja the best in the business, again. And I swear there's more to come. I told you, weeks ago, that Spain could and probably would win this. So now I'm telling you again: this is only the beginning. Viva Espana.
With the UEFA Champions League final now behind us, fans do not have to wait long for their next football fix as attention swiftly turns to what should be a thrilling international summer, headlined by Euro 2024.
Germany are sole hosts, just the third time in seven editions that the Euros have been exclusively held in one country. All the usual continental heavyweight nations will be hoping to emerge triumphant by the time the final is held in Berlin on 14 July.
But who is going to come out on top this summer? The Opta Supercomputer garnered plenty of attention during the domestic league season and, once again, has not been shy in putting its (robotic) neck on the line.
England are experienced campaigners at the European Championship and have played in 38 total tournament matches. Success has so far eluded them, though, and no team has played as many games as them without ever winning the event.
With captain Kane impressing for Bayern this season and boasting an excellent scoring record at major tournaments, the other contending teams know toppling England is likely to be key to their chances of securing Euros glory.
The Opta Supercomputer ranks two teams well above the rest going into the Euros. As well as England, France are strongly fancied to go all the way and come in only fractionally behind the Three Lions.
Kane and France star Kylian Mbapp have each scored 12 goals in 18 games over the last three major international tournaments, which is a higher total than any other European players have managed across those events.
Antoine Griezmann has also impressed at major tournaments. Since Euro 2016, he has been directly involved in more goals (18) than any other European player, racking up 11 goals and seven assists from 25 games at the World Cup and Euros.
Les Bleus boss Didier Deschamps has a strong track record too. If he lifts the trophy at Euro 2024, he will become the first person to win the World Cup and European Championship as both a player and head coach.
Should they top Group D, which they did in over half (57.9%) of our simulations, a last-16 clash with the Group F runners-up is unlikely to cause much concern, unless Portugal happen to slip into a runners-up spot.
While England are favourites, 10 of the 16 previous UEFA European Championships have been won by either Germany, Spain, France or Italy, so any team outside of that quartet will be doing well to lift the trophy.
A member of that group, Germany, are seen again as strong contenders despite having had a difficult decade in major tournaments since winning the World Cup in 2014, and suffering six friendly losses since their poor campaign in Qatar.
They were eliminated in the group stages of the last two World Cups and in the round of 16 at Euro 2020, while no sole host country has won the tournament since France did 40 years ago, so Julian Nagelsmann has his work cut out.
Germany might need some special performances from their veteran stars, with Manuel Neuer, the retiring Toni Kroos, Ilkay Gndogan and Thomas Mller among the international stalwarts named in their squad.
Germany have a 36.5% chance of reaching the semi-finals. There is a reasonable gap between them and the sides below (Spain and Portugal), with the hosts being the only team aside from England and France who won the tournament in more than 10% of our simulations, doing so 12.4% of the time.
So while the narrative around Germany suggests they may not be trending in the right direction to win it, the supercomputer is clear that they should not be written off, with friendly wins over France and the Netherlands in March giving the other teams fair warning.
Spain will battle it out with Italy, Croatia and Albania in what looks poised to be a competitive Group B. La Roja, the three-time winners, are rated as the most likely side in that pool to contend for glory by the Opta Supercomputer, even though they only win that tough group 47.3% of the time.
Even though they are short of their previous peak, Spain are rarely beaten easily. Their last five knockout matches at major tournaments have all gone to extra-time and four of them were decided by spot-kicks, three being eliminations, so their recent record at the World Cup and Euros would quite conceivably have been much better with a bit more luck from 12 yards.
c80f0f1006