Spain wins record fourth European Championship title by inflicting another painful loss on England
Berlin (AP/PTI): Spain is the king of European soccer for a record fourth time. For England, it's another agonizing near-miss in the team's decades-long tale of underachievement.
Completing a tournament the team dominated from start to finish, Spain beat England 2-1 in the European Championship final on Sunday with Mikel Oyarzabal the unlikely match-winner in the 86th minute.
Oyarzabal, a backup striker who came on as a substitute for captain Alvaro Morata, slid in to poke home a left-wing cross by Marc Cucurella, just when the game at Berlin's Olympiastadion seemed destined for extra time.
England, the birthplace of soccer, is still without a major title in the men's game since winning the 1966 World Cup and its players watched on forlornly as Morata raised aloft the silver trophy to backdrop of confetti and fireworks inside the stadium built for the 1936 Olympics.
Add 2024 to the titles won by Spain in 1964, 2008 and 2012.
“Here we are, champions of Europe,” said Nico Williams, whose opening goal for Spain in the 47th minute was canceled out by England substitute Cole Palmer in the 73rd. “We are thrilled and hope this can keep going and we can go for the (2026) World Cup.”
Lamine Yamal, the prodigy who turned 17 on Saturday and is the youngest player to have appeared at a European Championship, set up Williams' goal with an inside run before passing across the face of the area. The two wingers have become the poster boys of an exciting, multicultural team that reflects Spain's changing demographics.
Yamal's mother is from Equatorial Guinea and his father is from Morocco, while the 22-year-old Williams has Ghanaian parents who made the long journey to Europe looking for a better life. To make it to Spain, they had to ride on the back of a crowded truck and walk barefoot through the Sahara desert.
“I believe there is a historical change, we are really grateful," said Williams, the player of the match with his darting runs and his second goal of Euro 2024.
“My parents have suffered a lot to get here. They are the ones who have suffered the most and they have instilled this sort of respect and loyalty in me," he said. "I'm really happy because we are making history.”
Unlike his brother Inaki, who is a Ghana international, Nico chose to play for Spain and will now be regarded as a national hero there.
Spain is back as a major player in senior soccer after winning both the Women's World Cup — also against England — and the men's UEFA Nations League in 2023.
Since 2001, Spanish men's teams have won 23 consecutive major finals in club and international soccer.
“I said before the tournament, nobody can hang with us,” Williams said.
Spain won all seven games at this European Championship — an unprecedented feat — and broke the record for goals scored in a single tournament, with 15.
There were joyous scenes after the final whistle, with defender Dani Carvajal piled on by jubilant teammates after slumping to the ground. Spain coach Luis de la Fuente was thrown into the air by his players. Both Cucurella and Yamal led Spain's players in jumping over the advertising boards to reach the red-and-yellow-clad Spanish fans in the stadium's east end.
“This is the best (birthday) gift I could have asked for,” Yamal said. “It is a dream come true.”
After getting his medal, the teenager turned and shook his fist in celebration, stuck his tongue out and showed off a beaming grin. By then, Yamal and his team mates were wearing Spain jerseys with “Kings of Europe” and the number “4” on the back.
Meanwhile, fans who had watched the game on a big screen in Madrid celebrated wildly, chanting “champions, champions” in Spanish. It was a great sporting day for the nation, with Carlos Alcaraz winning the Wimbledon men's singles title for a second straight year hours before the Euro 2024 final.
As for England, the men's team has now lost back-to-back Euro finals — it was defeated in a penalty shootout by Italy on home soil in the final in 2021 — and this was another painful loss for a team that will have gone six decades without a major title by the next World Cup.
England's women have been more successful, though, winning the European Championship in 2021 and reaching the World Cup final two years later.
“This time it just wasn't meant to be,” Prince William, who attended the final alongside other dignitaries including Spain's King Felipe, wrote on social media. “We're all still so proud of you.”
It was the fourth straight game that the English came from behind since the group stage, but their resilience wasn't rewarded this time.
A team that has produced big moments when it really mattered at Euro 2024 — including Jude Bellingham's 95th-minute overhead kick against Slovakia in the round of 16 — couldn't deliver another one, with Spain midfielder Dani Olmo clearing the ball off the line at a corner in the 89th minute.
“It has been a difficult ride, we have done extremely well to get here, but ultimately we are going to be judged on this game,” England captain Harry Kane said.
“It's extremely painful,” he added. "It's going to hurt for a long, long time.”
England coach Gareth Southgate, who has been in charge for eight years and also led the team to the World Cup semifinals in 2018, said it wasn't the time to make a decision on his future. His contract expires in December.
“Most of this squad are going to be around not just for the World Cup but the next Euros as well,” Southgate said. "There's a lot to look forward to but at this moment that's not any consolation.”
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
SC refuses plea against Andhra Pradesh govt panel reviewing SIT report on Tirumala laddu row
New Delhi (PTI): In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to restrain a one-member committee appointed by the Andhra Pradesh government from reviewing an independent Special Investigation Team's (SIT) report on the Tirumala laddu controversy.
The top court, on October 4, 2024, had set up the five-member independent SIT to probe the allegations of animal fat used in preparing Tirupati laddus to "assuage the feelings of crores of people", while making clear that the court cannot be used as a "political battleground".
On Monday, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymala Bagchi was told by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy that the state government's decision to appoint the one-member committee amounts to setting up a parallel inquiry that would affect the SIT's probe. The plea also assailed statements made by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on the row.
Rejecting the submissions, the CJI noted that the SIT probe is already over and the matter is sub-judice as two chargesheets, including a supplementary one, have been submitted in the court.
"Such an administrative enquiry cannot be called as overlapping with the criminal proceedings which led to the chargesheet and the supplementary chargesheet," the CJI said.
"There is no conflict of interest/overlapping, and the scope of the investigation/enquiry, having been well demarcated, shows that apprehension of the petitioner does not have a solid foundation. Let both processes continue strictly in accordance with the law," the court said.
Swamy argued that the state government's move undermines the authority of the SIT, constituted earlier by the Supreme Court itself to probe irregularities surrounding the laddus distributed by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD).
During the proceedings, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the SIT has completed its investigation and filed its final report.
He underlined that according to the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) manual, if administrative lapses not connected to a criminal matter are found during a probe, then those have to be intimated to the state government, and as the SIT has found certain administrative lapses, the Andhra Pradesh government's panel is looking into those.
The panel replaced the state government's SIT, constituted on September 26, 2024, following the politically-sensitive row over the alleged use of animal fat in the laddus.
The controversy erupted after Naidu's claim that animal fat was used in preparing Tirupati laddus during the previous Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy-led regime in the southern state.
The YSR Congress Party has accused Naidu of levelling "heinous allegations" against it for political gains, while the ruling Telugu Desam Party in the state has circulated a laboratory report to back its claim.
A batch of pleas, including those seeking a court-monitored probe into the alleged use of animal fat in making the laddus, was then filed in the apex court.
