SPAIN'S last-minute win against England in the 2024 UEFA Euros comes on the 60th anniversary of the country's first-ever title in the much-followed competition – and has broken numerous records, too.
Spain makes history with a fourth UEFA Euro title after a 2-1 victory over England on Sunday, July 14 (photo: UEFA)
The party has barely finished for La Roja – their triumphant return from Germany after Sunday's late-night victory was followed by a huge open-air concert in Madrid's Plaza Cibeles, which is, at every other time, a busy traffic island but which, on Monday, featured a star-studded line-up of national music chart-topping artists; then, later that day, the entire team met King Felipe VI at the monarch's main residence in Madrid, the Zarzuela Palace.
Naturally, they had already met HRH Felipe immediately after the match, since the King was watching with the youngest of his two daughters, the Infanta Sofía, 17.
Sofía, who wore red trousers in support of her national team – although her white shirt may have been a nod to England, given that she is currently living in the UK whilst studying at sixth-form college in Wales – looked visibly nervous as the score levelled up before Oyarzábal took it to 2-1 in the 86th minute.
Spain's national team attended an audience with the Royal family after their win, meeting the Infanta Sofía 17 (left) who was at the match with her father, King Felipe VI, and Princess Leonor, 18 (right). The first time they held the trophy, they were aged one and two respectively (photo by the Royal household, Casareal.es)
Most Euro victories and most consecutive match wins in history
Oyarzábal and his team-mate Nico Williams, whose goals took the cup home to Spain for the fourth time in history, made La Roja the highest-scoring team in the entire trajectory of the Euros: With 15 goals in this year's tournament and only four against in seven matches, Spain has now broken the uninterrupted record held by France who, under Platini in 1984, notched up a total of 14 in five matches to clinch the trophy.
Until now, Spain had been level-pegging with Germany for the most UEFA Euro tournaments won – with three each – but La Roja is now officially in the lead with four titles.
Even though the baby-boomer generation is the youngest to remember Spain's first victory in 1964 – at a time when home television was an extremely rare commodity and most would have followed the matches by radio – no Spaniard born in the 20th century will ever forget La Roja's 'World Cup sandwich': Their hat-trick of two consecutive Euros in 2008 and 2012 with the 2010 World Cup in between went down in sporting history.
But for fans of every nationality, the writing was on the wall ahead of Sunday's match, despite the huge leaps forward England has made in recent years under Gareth Southgate: Every time Spain's men's – or women's - team has reached a final, it has won.
For the past decade, La Roja has barely made it past a quarter-final, but before Sunday, the team had qualified for, and won, 22 finals, meaning fans were fairly confident that the 23rd would end the same way.
And in the 2024 tournament, Spain did not lose a single match, giving it a new record of seven consecutive victories – against Croatia, Italy, Albania, Georgia, Germany, France, and then England – breaking that held by France since 1984 when Platini's squad won five consecutive matches, albeit at a time when only eight countries were involved in the competition.
Rising stars and seasoned veterans
In total, 10 players scored goals for Spain during the 2024 Euros – Álvaro Morata, Dani Carvajal, Ferrán Torres, Rodri, Merino, Oyarzábal and Lamine Yamal with one each, Dani Olmo with three, and Fabián and Nico Williams each scoring twice.
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