Gareth Southgate said there was "no hiding" from England's fitness issues at Euro 2024 and admitted Harry Kane was unable to reach his best level in Germany. Southgate's side have been dogged by physical concerns since before they left for Euro 2024 at the start of June and rarely looked as sharp as their Spanish opponents in Sunday's final defeat. Captain Kane missed the end of Bayern Munich's season while LaLiga's player of the season Jude Bellingham faded in the second half of the campaign, with 18 of his 23 club goals coming before the turn of the year.
The England manager, who refused to talk about his future following the game, may come under scrutiny over whether he could have better utilised his squad - or taken another left-back given Luke Shaw's long-term injury absence. But speaking to ITV Sport , he said: "There's no hiding we've had some issues coming into the tournament, we've managed to deal with most of them and got Luke [Shaw] out tonight, but we've just fallen short in the end. Trending "It's probably both [a success and missed opportunity], frankly.
The players have got to take enormous credit to get us to the point we did, but when you get as close as that you've got to take your chances. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player "The character, the resilience they've shown, I just think tonight we didn't keep the ball well enough. They had more control of the game and that was probably the main difference.
I just think against Spain, th.
