Euro final: Can an ever-improving England burst Spain’s aura of invincibility?

For ages, Spain and England embodied the contrasting philosophies of football. Short, intricate passing game pitched against long-ball hoofing trial and error, organised build-up meeting a kick-and-rush charge.

But over the years, with the influx of Spanish managers in the premier league — three of the top four teams last season were helmed by Spaniards — their worlds gravitated. Hence, viewing the Spain-England Euro final through the conventional prisms is counter-intuitive. Rather, at the heart of the encounter is a bigger and older debate that has piqued the deepest of its thinkers.

What works in a tournament conquest? Playing beautiful football or a scrape-and-grind approach? Is it better to be a beautiful loser than a boring winner? Could idealism defeat utilitarianism?

Spain 🆚 England

Berlin. Sunday.#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/f1NqmQfOpO

— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) July 10, 2024

Spain has produced the most exhilarating brand of football since the first batch of Tiki Taka-ians; their rhythmic, synchronised movements, the sudden explosions of pace on the wings, the sense of self-expression, the serendipitous midfield, their sophisticated interlocking, the unfazed backline. Luis de la Fuente’s men have re-instilled beauty into tournament football.

Spain seemed to exist in a parallel universe, a rarefied space of excellence, immune to fickleness of form and fortune, freezing every adversary in the square light of their technical shine. It’s not that they have won seven games that matter, but how they won, with an aura, with an invincibility.

The path to the final could not have been more different for England.

Spain sped through a six-lane highway; England dragged through hairpin bends and muddy lanes. Without moments of sheer individual brilliance, England would have bitten the dust. The stoppage time goals against Slovakia, the magnificence of Jude Bellingham, the assuredness of Jordan Pickford against Switzerland, Bukayo Saka’s wispy curler; Ollie Watkins’s added-time opportunism. England’s existence in the tournament has been shaky; watching them toil was frustrating; caution remained the underlying theme, even though their play has not been cynical or negative.

It was just that they struggled to ignite, not for the dearth of talented individuals or an ordinary set of coaches. But just that they could not knit together extraordinary individual skill to create something more majestic than they had exhibited so far.

Green shoots

There are green shoots of hope — the 35 minutes against Netherlands in the first half, the enhanced mobility of Harry Kane, the growing influence of Declan Rice.

But fate has bunched both in the final in Berlin, where the route they traversed would matter less than the destination. “We are here, and that’s what matters,” coach Gareth Southgate would chirp after edging past the Netherlands. He pointed to the reality of England improving with every game and peaking towards the end game, or that timely contributions have arrived from various players. That’s what it is all about — unlike season-long leagues that require sustained domination, one good/bad/fortunate/unfortunate evening could change the outcome of the final.

The past offers valuable lessons, and optimism for England. It’s not always that the best team in the final wins; Portugal in the 2016 edition didn’t win a single game in the group stages, scratched through the final, where an obscure forward’s hit-and-hope 25-yarder decided the title. On such accidents of fate, sometimes, hinge the destiny of a tournament. Or the more extreme instance of Greece’s march in 2004. The forces that control it are different to those that govern league football. And England, for all their mediocrity in the campaign, possess elite talents, on the field and the bench.

They have illustrated grit and resolve to remain immune to criticisms, found a way to overturn deficits and to summon a spirit of indefatigability in duress, bound by a sense of siege mentality. Evident is an if-not-now-never sentiment.

Since Southgate assumed the office, England shed their underachieving millstone. Two finals, a semifinal and a quarterfinal, he has achieved more success than any other English coach since Alf Ramsey, orchestrator of their lone World Cup success. None of the tournaments began with England as favourites; even in the knockout games they eventually lost, they were seldom the irrepressible champions-in-waiting, but equals or even marginal underdogs. Here, though, they are certainly, and that could be a blessing. And a fitting end to an era where England were un-hyped but punched above their weight. None would begrudge if England resist Spain.

Start of an era

Contrastingly, it’s the start of an era for Spain. Easily the best team in a tournament where most teams looked cagey and conscious, lacking in peaks of extreme quality, Spain was the kiss of god, a breath of fresh air, the force that masked the fatigue of a turgid tournament.

This Spanish team is worth living and dying for, except that they need to prove they are resistant to the fluctuating fortunes of a knockout game. They need the stamp of greatness, which only silverwares could validate. They wouldn’t want the fate of Socrates’ romantics of 1982 or Ferenc Puskas’s Magic Magyars of 1954 to befriend them. They wouldn’t want to be remembered as beautiful losers like Johan Cruyff’s Total Football. It’s their chance to prove that beauty and utility could coexist in the sport, that great teams win no matter what. Whatever happens, this would be defined as Spain’s Euro, or that of its wondrous star, Lamine Yamal, but the final would be about how they would be remembered.

Spain as beautiful losers or England as scrappy winners? A debate as old as the game, and still no closer to finding the answer.

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