This was a football match that kept rewriting its own script. Spain went ahead through a Lamine Yamal goal gifted by Marc Guehi's inexplicable decision to turn back into traffic in the second minute, and for twenty minutes it looked like a rout was coming — Ferran Torres had a goal disallowed, hit the post, and squandered a one-on-one, while Dani Olmo flashed wide from a Yamal assist. Spain created enough chances to kill the game before England had warmed up. But Thomas Tuchel's side, under pressure to show more ambition after their ultra-defensive World Cup semifinal exit to Argentina, found a gear. Anthony Gordon finished a slick counter-attacking move in the 36th minute, and four minutes later Harry Kane headed home via a Cucurella deflection. Wembley was transformed. The crowd that had been anxious was now electric. The pivot came ten minutes into the second half. Kane won a penalty after a Rodri foul on Bellingham, confirmed by VAR. He slipped slightly on his plant foot and crashed the ball against the crossbar. It was the kind of moment that splits timelines — at 3-1, the game is probably over. At 2-2, which arrived when Alex Baena steered home after Nico O'Reilly gave the ball away to Dani Olmo, it was suddenly Spain's. Luis de la Fuente's substitutions were surgical. Baena and Mikel Oyarzabal, both introduced from the bench, combined for the winner — Baena providing and Oyarzabal dinking the ball over James Trafford with the composure of a player who has scored in finals before (he netted the Euro 2024 winner against this same England side). The defensive errors were the recurring motif. Guehi's second-minute gift to Yamal. O'Reilly's giveaway leading to Spain's equalizer. England's backline losing shape for the third goal. Tuchel had insisted before the match that this wasn't a new start, but it exposed the same vulnerability that has haunted England in knockout football: they can play with adventure, but the concentration lapses at the back are systemic, not individual. Spain's 39-match unbeaten run — a European record — is built on exactly this capacity. They can absorb punishment, concede the momentum, and still find a way through. They were outplayed for a 15-minute stretch and it didn't matter. The bench depth, the tactical flexibility, the refusal to panic — these are the qualities of a squad that won the Euros and now looks like the team to beat at the next World Cup. For England, the performance will generate more debate than comfort. The attacking play was genuinely exciting, the best they've looked going forward under any recent manager. But two defensive errors directly caused goals, and Kane's penalty miss at the critical moment will linger. Tuchel has the raw material. Whether he can fix the structural fragility at the back before it matters in a tournament is the question that follows England everywhere.
