England fans have identified the exact moment they believe Spain won the championship.
Mikel Oyarzabal’s late-game poke past Jordan Pickford in the 87th minute sealed the Three Lions’ defeat.
Spain controlled the game for the most part of the game, with 66% of the ball.
They took the lead soon after the break, but England responded with a lovely curling strike from substitute Cole Palmer to tie the score.
The defining moment
However, fans claim that just after the goal, a crucial incident turned the tide in favor of Spain.
In the 75th minute, England had a throw-in deep in the Spain half; instead of applying more pressure, the ball went backwards.
Kyle Walker threw the ball back to John Stones who was almost at the halfway line as he controlled the it before passing back to Jordan Pickford.
The ball soared out for a Spain goal kick after the goalkeeper went long rather than finding a teammate.
This allowed Spain to reorganize and gain control of the game back as they mounted pressure on England.
A fan captioned the moment, highlighting it: “The moment it died.”
England sat deeper and deeper over the next fifteen minutes, struggling to make an impression as they had during the preceding twenty-five.
England boss Gareth Southgate on the defining moment
Even England boss Gareth Southgate acknowledged that this was the turning point.
‘There was one moment where we had a throw-in in their third of the pitch and we definitely had a opportunity to keep the ball in that area of the pitch but we played backwards, Southgate said, per The Sun.
“And then there was a long period after that where we didn’t get the ball again. There was a turning point if you like within that,” he added.
Afterwards, Dani Olmo, Marc Cucurella, and Oyarzabal’s outstanding link-up play proved to be the undoing of England.
Meanwhile, Sports Buddy previously reported that Ollie Watkins has revealed the shocking conversation between him and fellow substitute Cole Palmer before combining to score England’s winning goal in their Euro 2024 semifinal clash with the Netherlands.
