Spain have impressed whilst England cheated
The European media has had a field day with England this tournament, the French press called them kittens, the Dutch said they were s*** and now the German press have labelled Gareth Southgate’s side as cheats.
The Three Lions have been jammy in their run to the final, a flurry of late goals and fortunate decisions have led to this point. None more so than the contentious penalty against the Netherlands which drew England level.
One Dutch pundit slammed Bukayo Saka’s handball in the run-up to Denzel Dumfries supposed foul on Harry Kane whilst Gary Neville called the decision an ‘absolute disgrace’.
The Netherlands manager, Ronald Koeman claimed VAR had broken football after the decision went England’s way.
He said: “As a former defender myself, what could he do in that position? He tried to block the ball… To penalise that is to tell him we cannot play football.”
Ollie Watkins provided the last-gasp winner to secure progression to the final. Afterwards, Rafael van der Vaart slammed Southgate’s side on Dutch broadcaster NOS, saying: “What a s*** team they are.”
Now the German press have waded in after their team crashed out in the quarter-final stage after losing 2-1 to Spain.
BILD claimed that Spain had ‘impressed’ en-route to the final whilst England had ‘cheated’.
They wrote: “The signs on Sunday are clear: While the British cheated their way into the final, the Spanish impressed throughout the entire tournament. They are the clear favorites and are keen to win their fourth European Championship trophy in history. An exciting statistic does not exactly make England, who are in the Euro final for the second time in a row and want to finally win a title again after the 1966 World Cup, any more confident.”
Germany are potentially still bitter after English officials failed to award them a penalty when Marc Cucurella blocked Jamal Musiala’s goal-bound effort with his arm.
Referee Anthony Taylor waved away the host nations hand-ball shouts.
Julian Nagelsmann claimed: “The referee blew in favour of Spain a little. It was a clear penalty.”
The European media will not bother the England camp though as the men have secured their spot in their first overseas major tournament final.
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