HERE is SunSport’s Euro 2024 team of the tournament.
It was heartbreak once again for England as they fell short in the final to Spain.
With their free-flowing football, Luis de la Fuente’s side were without a doubt the best team in Germany over the last month.
And five of their players have made the cut – Marc Cucurella, Rodri, Fabian Ruiz, Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams – but Dani Olmo unluckily misses out due to his lack of minutes before the quarter-final.
England’s performances were far from convincing on their road to Berlin, with star players like Phil Foden and Harry Kane struggling in attack despite stellar seasons with their club sides.
Resilient defence displays instead caught the eye as Marc Guehi impressed while filling in for the injured Harry Maguire.
The Crystal Palace star’s commanding performances were helped by Jordan Pickford behind him, who earns his spot in the team thanks to the penalty shootout heroics against Switzerland.
France relied on their defence to make the semi-final, managing just one open play strike that wasn’t an own goal all tournament.
Therefore, William Saliba and Jules Kounde have made the best XI.
Completing the side are Germany and Holland’s main men Jamal Musiala and Cody Gakpo, who both scored three goals.
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Georgia making it out the group was one of the most iconic moments of the Euros, so goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili and striker Georges Mikautadze make our alternate XI.
The second team, which England and Spain players are banned from, also includes Turkey’s teenage ace Arda Guler.
His rocket against Georgia is a possible goal of the tournament winner – as was Xavi Simons’ effort in the semi-final against England.
In midfield, N’Golo Kante rolled back the years, Granit Xhaka run the show for Switzerland and Marcel Sabitzer added quality and energy to an exciting Austria side.
Defensively, Theo Hernandez continued to show why he is a world-class left-back and Pepe proved age is just a number as the 41-year-old put in several strong performances all while Cristiano Ronaldo was trying desperately to make this team.
Germany’s Joshua Kimmich and Switzerland’s Manuel Akanji complete the team.
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…
