Euro 2024 Final: Can Southgate’s Men At Last Win A Trophy, At A Time When There Is Nothing Much To Celebrate In England?

Can England end a 58-year drought? Can England win their first ever Euros? Can England get a different result from their 2021 Euros final?

These are the questions that have got fans preoccupied ever since the team’s last-minute win over the Netherlands in the semifinals on Wednesday night.

Let’s get the context of these questions. England won the 1966 World Cup trophy which is their only significant achievement on the global stage to date. Imagine belonging to a country that has not won any important international trophy in almost six decades in a game that’s most followed and most loved!

Then, more often than not, a World Cup winner has also a Euros trophy under its belt. But believe it or not, England have not won a single Euros.

Finally, last time they went closest to breaking the jinx as they reached their first Euros final. But they blew the opportunity against Italy in front of home supporters at Wembley.

Former England great Alan Shearer just encapsulates the feeling. In his column for the BBC Sport, he writes: “Before we think about what comes next, the fact we are here, again, is worth savouring. I turned 50 before I saw England reach a major men’s final in my lifetime, and now we are into our second in the past three years, and our first ever on foreign soil.” Loads of pathos there. Understandably so.

When it comes to club football, England boasts one of the best leagues in the world. It is very aggressive and tests a player’s mettle and skills not a little. And England have had some great names over the years, like Shearer, David Beckham, Michael Owen, John Terry, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney – to name but a few — all fantastic players but underachievers at the international level.

So, it can be unsettling for England fans, to have a great league, so many great players but never a team good enough to win a major trophy.

Tha’s why Sunday night is so important for them. England can create history at the Olympiastadion Berlin. England fans are expecting big but, if truth be told the odds, are totally against them. The team they are playing in the final is the finest team of the tournament, solid in all departments. Spain!

While England’s journey to the final has been full of bumps, Spain have been a cut above the rest. Out of their six matches so far, England drew twice in the group stage and beat Switzerland in a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals. They needed last-minute efforts in their Round of 16 clash against Slovakia and the semifinal against the Netherlands. Even against Switzerland as a matter of fact. Against Slovakia, Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane scored in stoppage time and early extra time respectively to bail them out; against Switzerland Bukayo Saka’s scorcher 10 minutes from time

threw them a lifeline and against the Dutch they needed a 90th-minute goal from Ollie Watkins to seal a place in the final.

That’s one way of looking at the things. The other is that somehow they have managed to get the job done. That they have been able to pull themselves out precarious situations quite a few times.

England football desperately needs a trophy. But one must be realistic that it’s Spain they are up against which has won all its games so far with total dominance. Moreover, La Roja have shown they can respond to all kind of scenarios. How they dispatched hosts Germany and France in the quarterfinal and semifinal… their self-assured play can freak any opposition out.

But then it’s also true that miracles happen in sports. The English fans would hope for that miracle, that ends their long, painful and embarrassing wait. Even more at a time when the country is facing an economic crisis, and they need something to cheer them up. The whole country, including King Charles, is looking to Gareth Southgate and his bunch to finish off the long-pending job.