Could football actually be coming home?

Karan Ahgun

— 4 min read
Could football actually be coming home?
Photo by Daniel van den Berg / Unsplash

With EURO 2024 ending on Sunday, I thought it would be cool to review the finalists' journey to the final as well as predicting the result of the final itself. This has been an interesting tournament in that the quality of the football has not been great from the bigger teams (e.g. England, France and Portugal). Germany and Spain have been the most enjoyable teams to watch this summer and its a shame that they had to play each other in the quarter-finals. But ultimately, the final will be played between England and Spain. Hopefully we should get a good game (and some celebrations🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿??)

First, let's review Spain's run to the final. They have been the most exciting team to watch and I think that comes from being the most well-balanced side in the tournament as well as having two young, dynamic wingers in Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams. As I said in a previous post, Spain's directness in attack has been surprising but the midfield duo of Rodri and Fabian Ruiz have been pivotal to their success. We already know how good a player Rodri is and he has managed to carry through his exceptional form into this tournament. Could he win the Ballon D'Or if Spain win the EUROs ? I guess we'll have to wait and see! Fabian Ruiz has been a joy to watch in this tournament. He is showing levels which are a far cry to his performances at Paris Saint-Germain. Silky touches, gliding elegantly past opposition players and scoring twice (including a beautiful effort against Croatia) has certainly seen him catch the eye of viewers and he's stocks have risen as a result of his performances.

We cannot talk about Spain without talking about Lamine Yamal! The 16 year old has lit up this tournament (along with Nico Williams) and is a shoe in for Young Player of the Tournament and maybe even Player of the Tournament. He dribbles effortlessly down the right wing, cutting in to shoot or cross a ball into the box. Yamal has already played 51 times for FC Barcelona so we shouldn't be surprised that he's bringing it on the international stage but still for someone so young to have such presence of the pitch is impressive. In Tuesday's semi-final against France, Yamal upstaged Kylian Mbappé, scoring an exquisite equaliser with a curling effort off his left foot which saw him take the record for the youngest ever goalscorer in the tournament's history. It seems as though Adrien Rabiot's pre-match comments fuelled Yamal's performance against France. Rabiot said that he wanted "to see more" from the Spanish winger and I guess that's exectly what he got. Yamal screamed to the TV cameras at full-time "Speak now, speak now", which he's entitled to do seeing as he inspired the Spanish comeback win.

England have grown throughout the tournament and have been getting better through the rounds. Their group stage performance left a lot to be desired but I think that the change to a back 3 in the quarter-final has helped to bring more balance to the team. I enjoyed the performance against The Netherlands in the semi-final, especially the first half. The combination play between Foden, Saka and Mainoo was some of the best football England have played in the tournament. Mainoo has brought some composure to the midfield but it is also his work off the ball which has been impressive, with the midfielder making some well-timed tackles and interceptions to help out his teammates. If Yamal was not playing in this tournament, I think Mainoo would be a contender for the Young Player of the Tournament.

Gareth Southgate has had a lot of criticism during this tournament and whilst most of it was justified, we have to recognise this must be the most successful period in the Three Lions' history and Southgate does deserve credit for that. He should get credit for relieving the outside pressures England players have always felt and I think that is why the current England players love playing for him so much. In term of Southgate's future, I think that he should leave after the EUROs whatever the result. He has done all he can with this England side and I would hope he gets a fairytale ending by winning the first trophy since 1966!

Prediction:

Spain will have most of the possession in this game and England will have to be defensively resolute and ruthless in their finishing when they get their chances. This match reminds of the FA Cup final in that England (like Manchester United) will need their best players to step up if they want to win the game. I do feel like its England's time to win though so I'll go for a 2-1 win in normal time with a Jude Bellingham winner!

It might be coming home!

Talk Soon!

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