Gary Neville gives his honest opinion on England’s Euro 2024 final defeat

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Gary Neville reacts to England’s heartbreaking defeat to Spain in the final of Euro 2024.

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and Gary I woke up with that sense of a bit of a reoccurring nightmare England fans probably done the same this morning it just didn’t happen again for England did it that final hurdle they couldn’t quite go over it yeah uh I have to say that last night felt um like we’ experienced it one time too many um this morning um feels just the same really disappointed um we’ve been here before obviously three years ago where we lost the final and those Lads have been here before but I suspect this will be a crushing defeat for them crushing defeat for the manager as well also for the fans because you know just it there was that hope that because of obviously the tournament the way in which it had gone and we’d saved ourselves with penalties with last minute goals there was a feeling that this would be the time and uh it didn’t happen you’ve got to give credit to Spain play were the better team in the tournament they were the better team on the night and you sometimes you know at least gain some sort of what would be uh I don’t know what what the word is to be honest with you but at least you recognize the team that’s won it is the best and that they’ve played some fantastic football and they did again last night you mentioned some of those players we saw Jude bellingham’s frustration he kicked an ice cooler Jordan pford was in tears Jon Stones couldn’t even watch the Spain celebrations how do you think they might feel waking up this morning knowing that just another chance has slipped away and you said it before so many times throughout this tournament you never know when you’re going to get that opportunity again no I said that actually when I first watched Gareth uh in a tournament in 2018 when they reached the semi-final I wondered whether they’d have that time type of position again and they have repeatedly actually and I think there’ll be a few of those Lads this morning we’ll be waking up thinking is this going to happen again there’ll be those Lads that wake up and think you know we’re young enough to you know make it happen again but maybe don’t realize how good an opportunity it was um because obviously these moments don’t come along very often tournaments themselves only come along every two years the EUR Euros every four years uh and there were so many England fans obviously traveled over last night must have been about 40 50,000 of them in the stage you all believing the same thing that this was the moment that we could rid ourselves of what’s happened in the last 30 40 50 years where we haven’t won anything but you sometimes football will so you up um and you all those feelings you get a positivity of it’s our time can sometimes pass away when you get onto the pitch and you play against a fantastic group of football players and that’s what happened last night we over many many years have had that feeling that they’ve got extra men in us on the pitch and we had it in that game against Spain yeah I think we all felt that there was just that sense that maybe just maybe we get to it winess something special last night let’s go back to the beginning if you like and and Southgate selection uh particularly that of the England Captain Harry Kane uh one touch in the opposition box last night you were quite critical of his performance at halim did Southgate get it right did he change him early enough should he have even been starting last night’s final I mean those questions will continue to be asked obviously over the next few weeks I’ve said a number of times in this last couple of weeks whether it’ll come out or not I’m not sure now because of obviously the fact that they’ve lost the way in which they have but I’d be amazed if it doesn’t come out in some way that that Harry’s been carrying some form of injury and patching himself up to get out onto the pitch because he physically never looked himself during the tournament and I think everybody could see that you know it’s not it’s not a technical thing with Harry kanane it’s not a performance thing you know this guy’s England’s best ever in his position um it’s more about the fact of his Mobility around the pitch and there’s no doubt he wasn’t free uh and Gare took him off relatively early last night and obviously you’re looking at that sort of touch map there of har that that’s just not him um but it has been in this tournament and there will be questions of course but gareth’s been loyal Gareth over this course of this tournament has had a plan he’s had a strategy he’s not changed it much that at times has brought criticism from everybody thinking that there needed to be an interference and sort of been more um I suppose yeah more interfering with his team selection but he’s got us to a final and the plan was working in in getting us to a final and he has got a lot of you know he has got a lot of uh experience Gareth in in managing these types of tournaments but Harry’s performances were nowhere near what the the level that he’s set um and you know ultimately that there will be question marks whether it will come out about him because obviously if he if it comes out in the next couple of weeks he’s been patching himself up it may bring further questions as to why he was picked because of the fact that he looks was carrying an injury if that is the case but it does feel like he was to me yeah he definitely didn’t seem himself over the past few weeks did he Luke sure the only other change last night uh should Gareth have have done more in terms of selection you know I know we’ve got to this point but it’s a final and and it’s not about losing a final is it it’s about going out to win did he get his selection right if he had the chance to go out and play that game again tonight what do you think he might do I mean look I’m in the stadium I’m on television and gareth’s in the hot seat and there’s a reason for that but the only thing that I felt at half time I thought Watkins should come on for Kane I thought Gordon should come on on the left and that Bellingham should go get off that left hand side and go back into Central Midfield um I just felt that we needed sacka Gordon and Watkins up top because we were playing deep obviously we weren’t playing deep we were being pushed back Deep by a fantastic Spanish team and when you’re playing deep you have to have a Counterattack and we were almost like a Counterattack strategy but without a counterattacking the team and that’s what I said at halime I felt Gordon should come on out that could have been a on the left um but I felt that saaka Gordon and um Watkins were the actual right three front players for us to be able to travel from box to box where we were so deep high up the pitch and have people who could carry the ball with Pace uh and connect as quickly as possible to that front you know to that front man who would have been Oly Watkins obviously so I think that they’re the two changes that that I thought would have happened it didn’t take long for him to make the injuries where he brought on Palmer and Watkins um I just felt what you know Palmer could have come on he’s been he’s a fantastic player he’s scored the goal but I did feel like we needed Pace in wide areas you mentioned that fantastic Spain Midfield and The Possession stats I mean they clearly backed that up don’t they I think 65% possession to Spain 489 passes completed by them to England’s 289 and that was with rodery off for half the game um that I guess the story of the final in its own way doesn’t it Gary look you can win football matches in many different ways but I think when you’re play in over a seven game tournament England have kept the ball at times in games against inferior opposition but when you play against top teams and you’re playing at the end of a competition and you’re having to chase the ball around we’ve all been there as England players in many many different tournaments I think until we can Master the ball technically find solutions to work our way out from the back under pressure spanic put us under great pressure I do think we will continue to fall short we you know you may get over the line we nearly did this time and you can win a game playing Counterattack there’s no doubt about that and that’s where I think we were last night we’re playing Counterattack but with Mayu with Fen with Palmer sacka Kane Bellingham all on the pitch I do believe we’ve got players who can actually keep the ball and be technically better than we were and every single player that came in did an interview said that we could have kept the ball better and I said last night on television that that should be the actual title of England’s book for the last 30 40 years and the one for the future because we’re going we’re going to America to play a World Cup in two years time and it’ll be hot in many of the states that we play in and if you haven’t got the ball it’s hard work and it wears you out over a tournament with the traveling you know if you’re basically sort of chaseing around the pitch often and there’s no reason now with the technical players that we’ve got where we can’t keep the ball better people will say yeah we have possession in this tournament but I’m not counting against some of the teams that we’ve played against I’m talking about the very top teams in the biggest moments um I think when you know keeping possessions very important last night it became critical to us because we were dead on our feet out on that pitch uh The Lads couldn’t move around and they needed to hold on to the ball and they couldn’t get hold of the ball off the Spanish You’re Right rodri comes off Fabian Ruiz was absolutely Sensational Zu M who came on was was excellent as well um but they have a way of being able to control the game and I’ve said this for many years you know Manchester United when I played at United we won the odd game with Counterattack but over the course of a season we had to control football matches um because you just don’t want to be without the ball it’s hard work and England play without the ball in too many big games against too many big opponents [Music]