ENGLAND’S heartbroken heroes will fly into a private airport terminal and not greet fans after falling at the final hurdle once more.
Gareth Southgate and his players are due to travel back to the UK, having suffered a tightly contested 2-1 defeat to Spain in the Euro 2024 final.
We thank you, our incredible fans, for all of your support throughout the tournament.
— England (@England) July 15, 2024pic.twitter.com/0zilkOFdaR
Cole Palmer’s second-half wonder strike had cancelled out Nico Williams’ 47th minute opener, but it wasn’t to be for the Three Lions.
England became the first team to lose consecutive Euros finals.
A late Mikel Oyarzabal goal separated the two sides, with England, despite having an effort cleared off the line – unable to equalise for a second time.
Oyarzabal converted an excellent cross from Marc Cucurella to break England hearts.
And while the nation picks up the pieces after another final defeat, England stars will be afforded a quiet getaway upon their return home.
An FA statement on X read: “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.”
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But England fans were left disappointed with the FA’s decision to deny them the chance to console players back on home soil.
One loyal supporter wrote: “Would be nice to greet the players. Feeling proud of the team. They did their best.”
A second said: “Proud of every single player. The way you have the power to unite a nation is second to none.”
The team are staying at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Berlin but have checked out this morning.
Despite the disappointment in Berlin still being raw, attention has turned to what comes next, with questions about Southgate’s future beginning to grow.
Southgate endured a rollercoaster Euro 2024, facing criticism for performances in the early stages.
Now, eight years and 102 games after accepting the job, he could part ways with the national team.
And he seemingly doubled down on that notion in his post-match interview, saying: “I think England are in a really good position in terms of the experiences they’ve got now.
“The age of the squad.
“Most of this squad are going to be around not only for the World Cup but the next Euros as well.
“There’s a lot to look forward to but this moment is not any consolation.”
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.
Read all of SunSport columnist Jack Wilshere’s Euro 2024 columns…
