How Spain ruthlessly exploited England’s lack of collective quality at Euro 2024

Spain were worthy winners of the Euro 2024 final, but the investigation from England’s perspective should not be about how their opponents in Berlin were better on the night, but how they were so much better for the entire tournament.

If you were to rank the 14 team performances by those two sides at this competition, in order of quality, you would list the seven by Spain and then the seven England ones. That was the extent of the difference. Spain impressed and enthralled in each game. They had weaknesses, like every side, but those weaknesses generally arose from their bravery and their commitment to attack.

England were underwhelming in the group stage, never clicking in attack, but at least remaining solid defensively. And then, in the knockout rounds, if you exclude the penalty awarded to them in the semi-final against the Netherlands, England conceded a higher expected goals (xG) number than they created in all four matches.

And on the basis of the respective starting XIs, this simply shouldn’t be the case.

In the most recent Ballon d’Or, now contested on a seasonal rather than an annual basis and therefore decided at roughly this time last year, Spain did not have a single player on the 30-man shortlist. UK newspaper The Guardian’s list of the best 100 players in the world, voted for at the end of 2023, Spain had only three in the top 70. Of those three, Gavi missed all of Euro 2024 through injury, Pedri was ruled out for the rest of the tournament after collecting an injury early in the quarter-final against Germany, and Rodri had to go off at half-time in the final.

You suspect several Spanish players will be higher in this year’s ranking. But the point stands — by these measures, they were essentially without any established world-leading stars last night in the crucial 45-minute period after the break.

This, ultimately, was a victory for teamwork and cohesion over individualism.

England had no fewer than 13 of the top 100 players on that aforementioned list, including some who didn’t make Gareth Southgate’s 26-man squad for Euro 2024. England’s trump card coming into the tournament was boasting arguably the best player from the Premier League (Phil Foden), the Bundesliga (Harry Kane) and La Liga (Jude Bellingham).

England weren’t short of star power. They were short of cohesion.

It’s difficult to find a single collective concept England did well over the seven matches. Goalkeeper Jordan Pickford’s distribution was often very direct and when England did attempt to play out from the back, there were no obvious patterns. Their passing network from the final shows absolutely no interplay between the attackers, and also reveals that their most frequent passing combination was central defender John Stones playing it back to Pickford.

Spain’s, in contrast, is a work of art.

In terms of pressing, admittedly a difficult concept in tournament football, England were notably passive, not helped by striker Kane’s limited mobility. But pressing is also about organisation and England’s approach was disjointed. In the final third, for all the big individuals, there were few signs of positive relationships between players — no two players who seemed on the same wavelength (with the arguable exception of Bukayo Saka and Kyle Walker), no rotations, no one stretching play to create space for others. And while England spent long periods on the back foot at this tournament, it’s also difficult to recall many examples of them springing into attack on the break, something which their attackers are all capable of individually.

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This was simply a side that relied on moments of magic — Bellingham’s bicycle-kick to force extra time against Slovakia, Saka’s late equaliser against Switzerland, Ollie Watkins’ even later winner against the Netherlands and Cole Palmer’s drilled equaliser in the final. It’s also undeniable that various newcomers — Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa, Kobbie Mainoo — stepped up and performed solidly.

But all that just demonstrates individual player quality. As a unit, England were average, and lucky to get to the final.

Their major problem once they were contesting that final was their pressing.

From the first minute, it seemed like there was an intent to press high. From Spain’s first goal kick, England pushed up and attempted to get tight. But was there actually a plan?

With six players — Spain’s back four and two central midfielders — to close down, England press with five, leaving right-back Dani Carvajal free. Spain have an obvious out-ball, so work the ball to that side of the pitch.

There are various ways England could have pressed with five players here. If Bellingham is blocking the passing lane out to the right-back, for example, or if England then shifted laterally across the pitch with Saka, on the near side, moving across to pick up a central midfielder, you could argue there was a plan.

But England just seemed disorganised because, by the time Carvajal receives the ball, Luke Shaw is nervously looking over his shoulder, unsure whether or not he is supposed to jump forward and press. Carvajal duly has time to play the ball upfield…

… and the move ends with Alvaro Morata, having come deep to get the ball, trying to thread it through to Lamine Yamal. OK, he would have been offside here anyway, but just one minute in and Spain had successfully played through England.

That wasn’t a one-off. Here’s the same situation, 10 minutes into the game. Spain are playing out from the back. Shaw isn’t sure whether he was supposed to jump or not. Bellingham is seemingly telling him he should.

Spain work the ball towards that side. Bellingham goes to close down, but he goes as an individual. Shaw is miles away from Carvajal, so again there is an easy out-ball.

Carvajal then has time to pick a good long pass…

… and if Nico Williams had got his head on this ball, he might have flicked it on to Fabian Ruiz running in behind.

These problems were never quite solved.

Into the second half, Spain changed shape to more of a 4-2-3-1 from their starting 4-3-3, but England’s problem was the same when they half-attempted to press in the middle third. Here, Bellingham is gesturing towards Yamal, probably telling Shaw to pick him up, although it’s impossible to know.

As the ball is played out towards Shaw, we can just about see his outstretched arm pointing frantically — again, it’s not quite clear what the organisation is here.

But either way, Shaw — who was excellent in one-against-one situations — had got caught in between. He is not close enough to press Carvajal, but he has also let Yamal get goal-side of him and the winger runs onto Carvajal’s clever outside-of-the-foot pass around the corner.

Yamal dribbles inside and lays the ball out to Williams…

… who finishes smartly.

This pattern continued. Here, with Robin Le Normand carrying the ball into midfield, Yamal has drifted inside with Carvajal on the overlap. Bellingham is pointing at something. So is Shaw. But neither of them is actually in a position to close down either player.

Yamal gets the ball and plays it in behind…

… and Morata is presented with a decent chance to make it 2-0.

Spain’s winner actually came from the other flank.

And, in the final minutes of a long tournament, you can forgive England for not pressing intensely here.

Still, the starting position of their attackers suggests they wanted to, but this pass from Aymeric Laporte to Ruiz is very simple. There’s no pressure on either player.

And then on the far side, there was a familiar situation. Walker isn’t sure whether to follow Dani Olmo inside, while Saka is unaware of Marc Cucurella’s run.

This opens up England. Walker is chasing shadows here, the ball being zipped around him. From this point, it’s worth simply appreciating the quality of the goal — Mikel Oyarzabal links play by sending the ball out to Cucurella…

… then times his run into the box to get the return ball and score.

England weren’t entirely embarrassed in the final. They successfully reached half-time without conceding a clear-cut chance. They got back into the game thanks to their use of the bench. They defended set pieces well and had a good opportunity to equalise again from one of their own corners late on.

But England played like underdogs — playing too many long balls and chasing as individuals rather than pressing as a proper unit.

It feels instructive that they lost the second half to a side who were forced to cope without the man subsequently voted the player of the tournament, Rodri.

Spain, collectively, were on a different level to England — last night and throughout the past month.