England were beaten by Spain at Wembley, with two defensive errors and a missed Harry Kane penalty costing Thomas Tuchel’s side. Marc Guéhi’s mistake allowed Lamine Yamal to score early, but two quickfire goals turned the game around and sent England in at the break with the lead. Another error, this time from Nico O’Reilly, gave Spain a route back into the contest, and Mikel Oyarzabal — the Euro 2024 hero — scored another winner against England.
Tuchel struck a reflective tone afterwards, arguing there was something to build on if his players learned from the night. “If we learn from it there are some positives to take from it. We will try to do a review tomorrow. We will highlight the positives. There is stuff we can do better,” he said. He insisted he would not single out individuals for their mistakes, adding: “There is no sense in showing individual mistakes or saying please don’t do mistakes.” Reflecting on the match itself, he said his side had believed they could beat Spain and felt they had the game in hand at the interval: “We think we had them. We think we had them at half-time. It is something to build on.”
The England manager also declined to be drawn on an ongoing case, saying he had not made it a topic of his own preparation. “I won’t comment on it as it’s an ongoing case. I didn’t make it a topic. It was not a topic for me. I’m just thinking about Spain, and the team and meetings,” he said. He acknowledged that his players may discuss the matter among themselves, but did not believe it had affected them: “The players have more time than me so for sure I can imagine that they talk about it. It’s good that they do. I don’t think it was a distraction for them.”
In his analysis of the evening, Barney Ronay wrote that the most unfavourable reading of the result was that a pattern was being established, with England losing another game in which they get close, lose control and fail to hold the midfield. He noted that both of Spain’s decisive goals were either made or scored by Luis de la Fuente’s two attacking substitutes. Ronay also argued it was not quite a repeat of previous disappointments, pointing out that England were much better at Wembley than they had been in Atlanta, and against a stronger opponent.
Elsewhere, the fixture between Israel and the Republic of Ireland is to go ahead following a vote by the Irish players.