Spain wins record fourth European Championship title defeating England 2-1

Spain wins record fourth European Championship title defeating England 2-1
BERLIN: Spain is the king of European soccer for a record fourth time. For England, it’s another agonizing near-miss in the team’s decades-long tale of underachievement.
Completing a tournament the team dominated from start to finish, Spain beat England 2-1 in the European Championship final on Sunday with Mikel Oyarzabal the unlikely match-winner in the 86th minute.
Oyarzabal, a backup striker who came on as a substitute for captain Alvaro Morata, slid in to poke home a left-wing cross by Marc Cucurella, just when the game at Berlin’s Olympiastadion seemed destined for extra time.
Lamine Yamal, the prodigy who turned 17 on Saturday and is the youngest player to have appeared at a European Championship, set up Williams’ goal with an inside run before passing across the face of the area. The two wingers have become the poster boys of an exciting, multicultural team that reflects Spain’s changing demographics.
Spain is back as a major player in senior soccer after winning both the Women’s World Cup — also against England — and the men’s UEFA Nations League in 2023.
Since 2001, Spanish men’s teams have won 23 consecutive major finals in club and international soccer.
Spain won all seven games at this European Championship — an unprecedented feat — and broke the record for goals scored in a single tournament, with 15.
There were joyous scenes after the final whistle, with defender Dani Carvajal piled on by jubilant teammates after slumping to the ground. Spain coach Luis de la Fuente was thrown into the air by his players. Both Cucurella and Yamal led Spain’s players in jumping over the advertising boards to reach the red-and-yellow-clad Spanish fans in the stadium’s east end.
As for England, the men’s team it has now lost back-to-back Euro finals — it was defeated in a penalty shootout by Italy on home soil in the final in 2021 — and this was another painful loss for a team that will have gone six decades without a major title by the next World Cup.