ENGLAND’s heartbroken stars have landed in a private terminal at Stansted Airport.
Gareth Southgate and his players wasted no time travelling home from Germany, after suffering a 2-1 defeat to Spain in the Euro 2024 final.
Earlier players were pictured leaving the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Berlin following the despair of losing 2-1 in the Euro 2024 final to Spain.
Gareth Southgate, clutching a drink in one hand, waved to those that had come to applaud the team.
The England staff and players were also applauded by the staff from the hotel as they left Berlin with their heads held high.
The manager led the way for his players as the team began their journey back to England, with his future as England manager still unclear as of now.
When asked about his future, he said: “Now is not the time for me to speak about that. I need to talk to the right people and give myself a bit of time.
“To get to another final… it was a privilege to have the opportunity. But to come up short is hard at the moment.”
Southgate and Harry Kane put on brave faces as they waved to fans but several players looked shellshocked.
Phil Foden waved through the pain but looked visibly upset.
John Stones kept his hood up as he looked to get on the bus without fuss.
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Meanwhile the likes of Bukayo Saka and Luke Shaw looked disappointed as they stepped onto the bus.
While fans were at the hotel in Berlin to greet the players, supporters in England will be denied the chance to welcome them home when they land in London.
IT now seems as though he really is cursed. Along with the rest of us, writes Charlie Wyett.
Tragically, unbelievably, Harry Kane’s agonising search for a trophy still continues and you know have to wonder whether he will ever actually manage it.
Certainly for England, in any case.
Kane has now suffered defeat in three major club finals and two finals of the European Championships.
Last night, the Three Lions captain was so ineffective that he was replaced by Ollie Watkins just after the hour.
Like much of this tournament, he really struggled to make the impact when England needed him, not that he had much service.
He had one shot in the first half and that was Rodri, who subsequently injured himself and went off at the break.
When Cole Palmer struck that brilliant equaliser, Kane was off on his feet from the bench, only for the national team to get another kick in the bo**ocks at the end.
Kane was substituted in both the games against Switzerland and Holland which England went on to win but on this occasion, he could only witness a gut-wrenching twist just when it looked as though Gareth Southgate’s team had dug their way out of trouble.
The Bayern Munich striker suffered the World Cup 2018 semi-final loss against Croatia, endured heartbreak against Italy in the Euro2020 final and then missed from the spot in the World Cup 2022 quarter-final against France.
He really thought that this was his time, even though England did not play well in Germany.
Kane will know that he will have more opportunities with England. But not many more.
The World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico seems a long way away and it will surely be under a new manager. Will England be better than they are now? Probably not.
And we are all left to wonder how much better England would have been with a fit and firing Kane at his very best.
Read the full verdict on the curse of Harry Kane…
Or check out all of Charlie Wyett’s Euro 2024 stories…
Confirming the decision to fly private, the FA said in a statement: “England’s players and staff will be travelling back on a charter flight.
“And will leave the airport via a private terminal, so there will not be an opportunity for the public to greet them on arrival.
“We thank you, our incredible fans, for all of your support throughout the tournament.”
It wasn’t to be for the Three Lions as they lost their second consecutive Euros final.
Nico Williams opened the scoring for the Spanish just a minute into the second half after having the ball laid onto him by teen sensation Lamine Yamal.
England had a brief flurry coming back into the game after Cole Palmer equalised in the 73rd minute.
But it was late heartbreak for the Three Lions after Mikel Oyarzabal tucked home a Marc Cucurella cross in the 86th minute.
Marc Guehi had a header cleared off the line late on by Dani Olmo as England pushed for an equaliser but ultimately the Three Lions fell just short.
IT will take a while for me and every England fan to get over this, writes Jack Wilshere.
To come so close to winning that trophy, only to be beaten in a second Euros final in a row, is a huge disappointment.
Especially when it really felt like this was our time.
It seemed that everything was coming together for us to end the long wait for a major title.
But Spain deserved it. They were the better team in the final and the best team of the tournament.
We will all — supporters, players, coaches, the FA — have to move on and go again.
Because English football is still in a good position.
Gareth Southgate has taken us to two finals, a semi-final and a quarter-final in four tournaments. We have never produced a run like that before.
The challenge now is to maintain this level of competitiveness and make England even better.
Southgate and his staff have done a fantastic job in changing the whole environment and narrative around the national team.
Whether Gareth carries on or not, the wider culture he has put in place must be preserved.
This tournament was the biggest test of that culture the team had to go through.
They overcame the problems and went all the way, only to fall at the final hurdle.
But there is every reason to believe we can challenge at the World Cup in 2026 and beyond.
We’ve got a really good group of players, many of them young, who can go on playing and performing for England for years.
Jude Bellingham, Kobbie Mainoo, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer — to name just five — have plenty more tournaments in them.
This tournament will also be an inspiration for the next generations of players. Unfortunately there isn’t the trophy lift to take that to a completely different level.
But England have delivered moments in Germany that will be replayed forever.
The Bellingham overhead kick and Ollie Watkins’ semi-final winner will be recreated in playgrounds and cages up and down the country.
What I would like to see now is England continuing to develop, to become a team that can consistently dominate opponents and can give a real identity to English football.
We now have players who are comfortable on the ball and technically very good.
The biggest disappointment of the tournament was that we didn’t see that as often as we would have liked. That leaves us with a ‘what if?’ feeling.
England must not lose that old-school mentality of finding a way to win even when you’re not playing well — that never-say-die spirit which got us through this Euros more than once.
But the next step is to allow other qualities to shine through, to give the players that our system is creating the platform to show everything they can do.
The job for me and for other coaches is to keep producing players that are comfortable on the ball and understand how to perform under pressure at a high level.
English football is in a good place but we need to keep going. Then we will finally get over the line.
Real all of SunSport columnist Jack Wilshere’s Euro 2024 columns…
