Thanks to their victory at the end of a suffocating match against Spain (1-0) on Saturday in Georgia, England won the Euro Espoirs, winning their third success in the competition. The hero of the “Young Lions”, the nickname of the English hopefuls, is called James Trafford: the doorman trained in Manchester City pushed back a penalty at the last minute of additional time, keeping his clean sheet during the six matches of the competition.
The task promised to be difficult against the “Rojita”, the best attack of the tournament (13 goals) and which remained on an offensive festival against Ukraine in the semi-finals (5-1). But the young English were the most dangerous in a first act marked by numerous technical errors on both sides, and by a large number of faults. Led by Newcastle player Anthony Gordon, stirring on the offensive level, they obtained several chances before finding the post on a header from Chelsea defender Levi Colwill (44th).
A few moments later, they took advantage of a gross foul near the penalty area to open the scoring with a free kick from Citizen Cole Palmer, deflected by one of his teammates near the wall of the Iberians (1 -0, 45th 4).
Very nervous, as evidenced by the seven yellow cards collected and the bad gestures of which they were guilty, the Spaniards were too rough to hope to return. If a polished game had allowed the “Rojita” to climb to the final, this time it was too clumsy to exist, like the penalty poorly shot by captain Abel Ruiz (90th 9) and repelled by Trafford.
The English hopefuls, who succeed Germany on the list, are crowned for the third time in their history at continental level, 39 years after their last title.
