Harry Kane says England's Euro 2024 final loss will 'hurt for long time'; Southgate discusses his future

England captain Harry Kane said his team’s 2-1 defeat in the Euro 2024 final to Spain will “hurt for a long time”. The Three Lions have consistently failed to cross the finishing lines at crucial stages in the top tournaments in recent years. They lost to Italy on penalties in the Euro 2020 final at Wembley after reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup two years earlier.

England were also knocked out of the 2022 World Cup quarter-finals after Kane missed a late penalty.

Speaking with ITV, the England captain, who was subbed off after 60 minutes, said the latest major tournament heartbreak after Spain's late winner was “tough to take”.

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“It’s hard to put into words how we’re all feeling right now… We did well to get back into the game and struggled to build on that,” added Kane.

Spain lost Rodri to injury at half-time but took the lead just two minutes into the second half, Lamine Yamal drifting in from the left to find Nico Williams, who cut the ball under England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.

Cole Palmer equalised three minutes after coming on as a substitute to give England hope but Mikel Oyarzabal scored the winner with four minutes remaining.

“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,” Kane said.

“The second half was better and we got the goal. We got caught with a cross and that’s the final.”

Despite a stellar individual career with numerous goalscoring honours, the 30-year-old Kane is yet to win a team trophy.

Prior to Sunday’s match, Kane said he would gladly “swap everything in my career” for Euros glory.

The forward finished with three goals at the tournament, the equal most, but struggled with a back injury.

“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.”

Asked about the future of England manager Gareth Southgate, Kane said the man who had been in charge since late 2016 would “go away and take time to decide”.

“We wanted to win it for him.”

Southgate in no hurry

Southgate, meanwhile, has said he is in no hurry to decide on his future. His contract expires in December and it’s unclear whether he might sign an extension that would cover upcoming tournaments such as the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“I don’t think now is a good time to make a decision like that. I’m going to talk to the right people,” Southgate told British broadcaster ITV after the final. “It’s just not for now.”

Southgate’s eight years in charge have seen him become the first manager of the England men’s team to reach two finals and the first to reach a final outside of England. The team’s only trophy remains the 1966 World Cup.

At the final whistle against Spain, Southgate stood alone with his hands on his hips before going to congratulate Spain’s coaches. He then walked through a crowd of joyful Spanish players and crisscrossed the field to commiserate with his players individually.

During his time in the high-pressure job, Southgate has had an uneasy relationship with fans and the media. Southgate was once idolized by England supporters who sang of him being “the one” amid his team’s runs to the 2018 World Cup semifinals and the Euro 2020 final, after England hadn’t reached a semifinal since the 1990s.

We fell short of what we wanted to achieve this summer, but this group gave everything and have done us proud.

Your support in Germany and back home has been incredible. Thank you. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/YBivqQXfJe

— England (@England) July 14, 2024

But frustration grew among fans over what they saw as his cautious, defense-first tactics, and matters reached a head at Euro 2024. Some fans threw plastic cups in Southgate’s directions after a drab group stage draw with Slovenia.

“We all want to be loved, right?" he said after the semifinal win over the Netherlands on Wednesday, adding that it was “hard” to face constant criticism.

Asked after the final if twice having come so close to a trophy — a loss on penalties to Italy at Euro 2020 and now an 86th-minute goal in the loss to Spain — made him want to stay to get the team over the line at a future tournament, Southgate declined to go into further detail on his future.

“I totally understand the question and understand you need to ask it, but I need to have those conversations with important people behind the scenes, and I’m obviously not going discuss that publicly first,” he said.

“Without doubt England has got some fabulous young players and even the young ones now have got a lot of experience of tournaments. Many of this squad are going to be around in two, four, six years, eight years time. We have now been consistently back in the matches that matter. It’s the last step that we haven’t been able to do.”

Southgate said one factor in England’s loss was fatigue from pre-tournament injuries and extra time in two of the previous three games. England also had one less day than Spain to recover after the semifinals.

“At the end the legs started to go and you start to make mistakes," he said. “The players have pushed it until the 85th minute of the final game. They’ve been incredible, really”

England has less than two months until its next game on 7 September against Ireland in the Nations League.

With agency inputs