‘Pride of the nation’ England gains royal assent despite Euro 2024 heartbreak

England suffered an even greater European Championship drama on Sunday when substitute Mikal Oyarzabal led Spain to a 2-1 victory in the final.

The Three Lions were hoping for another rescue when substitute Cole Palmer cancelled out Nico Williams’ opener, but La Roja came into action in the closing minutes and Oyarzabal turned home Marc Cucurella’s cross with four minutes remaining.

While Spain won the trophy for a record fourth time, overtaking Germany as the country with the most titles won, England now have to go back to the drawing board.

Below we discuss the best Opta stats to emerge from the highlights of the match in Berlin.

Spain 2-1 England: No redemption for Three Lions as Yamal and Williams shine

England made an unwanted bit of history with their defeat on Sunday, becoming the first team in history to lose the final of the European Championship twice in succession.

Gareth Southgate meanwhile became the first manager to oversee two final defeats in the competition.

The Three Lions started strongly and both teams struggled to create chances in the first half. They fell behind just 69 seconds into the second half. Williams pounced on a pass from Yamal and fired the ball over Jordan Pickford.

Williams scored the earliest in the second half of a European Championship final and at 22 years and two days he became the second-youngest player to score in the pinnacle of the tournament, behind only Pietro Anastasi for Italy in 1968 (20 years and 64 days).

Yamal meanwhile became the first Spanish player to record four assists in a single European Championship tournament.

It is also the highest number of assists a player has ever provided in a single edition of the competition since Opta Records began in 1980.

England have now conceded the first goal in eight of their last 12 games in all competitions and have conceded in four consecutive games for the first time since 1985.

However, the Three Lions were pulled back into the game by Palmer, who fired the ball into the bottom left corner with his foot after Jude Bellingham had brought him on, just 142 seconds after coming on. It was England’s fastest goal by a substitute at the European Championships and the second-fastest goal by a substitute in a European Championship final, after Juan Mata in 2012 for Spain (100 seconds).

Bellingham’s assist came on his 15th appearance in a major international tournament. At the age of 21 years and 15 days, he is the youngest player in the history of the European Championship and World Cup to make 15 appearances in the competitions.

The second youngest player to achieve this feat is Bukayo Saka, who also made his 15th appearance in this competition (22 years and 313 days).

England, however, surrendered control of the match and fell behind again when Oyarzabal turned in Cucurella’s low cross. Oyarzabal has now scored 12 goals for Spain, nine of them as a substitute, including his last five in succession.

He is the fourth substitute to score the winning goal in a European Championship final, after Oliver Bierhoff for Germany in 1996, David Trezeguet for France in 2000 and Eder for Portugal in 2016.

England were unable to respond in the final minutes as Spain won seven from as many games at Euro 2024.

They are the first European country to win seven matches at a major international tournament (European Championship/World Cup) and only the second in total, along with Brazil at the 2002 World Cup.

La Roja scored 15 goals at Euro 2024, the most goals ever scored by a country at a single tournament in Euro history.

Meanwhile, England are still struggling to equal the 1966 World Cup.

This was their 45th match at the European Championship, 19 more than any other country has ever played without winning the trophy (Belgium are second with 26).