STORY: ::July 14, 2024
::'It' heartbreaking to lose the Euro 2024 final
to Spain with a late goal,' says England's Bellingham
::Berlin, Germany
::Jude Bellingham/England midfielder
"We sacrificed a lot throughout the last weeks. You know, it's so tough these days with the crazy schedules and then coming together for the end of the season for one last tournament. It's difficult on the body, you know, mentally, physically you're exhausted. But for our country, we wanted to give everything, and then, yeah, to lose in that way is really cruel, you know, again, we probably didn't play our best game, but there was definitely some good moments and we felt like we got back into the game and then to kind of be sucker punched with the late goal, it's heartbreaking. We all wanted nothing more than to make history and to make the people of England proud but we haven't managed to quite deliver. There are the reasons for that and I'm sure as a team and going forward we will analyse it, but I think it's a young group still. It's really disappointing because at some point we do have to deliver. But they're experiences and there's things we can take from this tournament going forward, and yeah, I suppose if you look at everything negatively, nothing will ever change. So, this is important. We pick the positives and the negatives together and find a way to one day get England over the line."
"There was definitely some good moments and we felt like we got back into the game and then to kind of be sucker punched with the late goal, it's heartbreaking," Bellingham told Reuters.
The Real Madrid star added that he would always respect and support whatever coach Gareth Southgate and the English FA decide about his future.
Spain's Mikel Oyarzabal scored four minutes from time as they capped a dominant Euro 2024 campaign with a deserved 2-1 win over England in Sunday's (July 14) showpiece for a record fourth title and condemned their opponents to a second straight final defeat.
