The incredibly tight VAR that saw England lose Euro 2024 final to Spain with just centimetres in it

SPAIN won Euro 2024 thanks to a VAR decision that went their way with just centimetres in it.

England were forced to fight back in Germany after Nico Williams opened the scoring just after the break.

But substitute Cole Palmer looked to have put a sensational comeback in motion by curling an equaliser in from outside the box.

It was all to play for heading into the final five minutes until Mikel Oyarzabal came off the bench to win the match.

He converted an excellent cross from Marc Cucurella to break England hearts.

Right away attention quickly turned to VAR because from the naked eye it looked almost impossible to tell if Oyarzabal was offside or not.

But thanks to Uefa’s technology, it was laid bare just how close the call was with Oyarzabal just centimetres onside.

Spain held out and it was a familiar feeling for both sides.

England – three years of from shootout defeat to Italy – became the first to lose consecutive Euros finals.

Meanwhile, Spain got their hands on the trophy for the third time – with Three Lions skipper Harry Kane still trophyless as a player.

This felt like our time... but keep Gareth's culture and we can win it in 2026 instead, writes Jack Wilshere

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…

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Kane told ITV: “It’s hard to put into words how we’re all feeling right now. Tough game.

“We did well to get back into the game and struggled to build on that. To concede late on is really tough to take.

Maybe Kane really is cursed as trophy drought goes on... he may never get a better chance with England

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 all of Charlie Wyett’s Euro 2024 stories…

“We’ve been coming from behind all tournament, we’ve got it in the locker. We didn’t take the next step and win it.

“In the first half, we struggled. We couldn’t keep the ball. Second half was better and we got the goal.

“We got caught with a cross and that’s the final. It’s an opportunity missed. These finals aren’t easy to get to.

“You have to take it when it comes and we haven’t done it again. It’s extremely painful and it’ll hurt for a long time.

“Gareth will go away and take time to decide. We wanted to win it for him.”

AFP