Euro 2024 Daily | England endure Spain pain and Chiellini grin on grim night in Berlin
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At the end of last season, West Ham had a managerial conundrum, one that divided the board room and the fanbase. Should they punt David Moyes – a man who brought silverware back to the club for the first time in 43 years – out of a east London door marked ‘Sod Off’, or keep him, despite another underwhelming season where the Scot’s own brand of stodgy pragmatism hadn’t quite hit the ideals of the so-called Academy of Football. The Hammers chose the former, replacing Moyes with a Spaniard with ideas, and Moyes left as a well-liked, well-respected manager, who everyone can pretty much agree had both flaws and success. We’ll find out soon enough if West Ham’s decision to appoint Julen Lopetegui was a good one, or whether, in a few months from now, Moyes will appear as a guest on Monday Night Football, gleefully whistling Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi down the barrel of a camera.
The start of the second half was a Shakespearean tragedy. England, incapable of anything, yielded before a superior Spain and only some unwise Spanish decisions avoided a hammering. The injury suffered by Spain’s helmsman, Rodri, made little difference: the Premier [League] stars found themselves kneeling before a Spanish generation that is afraid of nothing” – Spanish daily El Mundo gets stuck into England’s performance. For more excitable press reaction from Spain have a gander at Sam Jones’s roundup here.
As England lost against the first good team we came up against (yet again), presumably now all the bandwagon jumping wannabes in Boxparks who don’t actually like football and only bothered watching England games from the semi-final onwards, wearing brand new retro England shirts from 1982, 1990 or 1996 and throwing £10 pints in the air performatively, can now slink off so football can return to those of us who actually bother to watch it season in, season out. I’m not sure what we’ll do without them though. It’s like the Beatles without Yoko Ono (not that I’m bitter)“ – Noble Francis.
Disappointed Nacho didn’t start. I had a bet on him or Rice being the first player named after a carbohydrate-based snack to score in a final since Bryan Breadsticks in 1962” – Paul Griffin.
This is something I really have a problem with. Why is it 58 years of hurt? The first tournament after England won the World Cup was in 1968 so surely the clock didn’t start until then, therefore it’s only 56 years of hurt. If I’m wrong and England had beaten Spain would we now be on one day of hurt?” – Alistair Moffat.
So, there were six winners of the ‘Euro’s Golden Boot’ award. Uefa missed a great opportunity to provide some extra excitement to the event … a penalty shootout among the six to decide the true Golden Boot winner” – Mike Haines.
