Harry Kane shares who is to blame after England lose Euro 2024 final to Spain

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Harry Kane has said England's players only have themselves to blame after suffering more final heartbreak at Euro 2024. Kane was withdrawn in the second half with the Three Lions trailing 1-0 from Nico Williams' opener, only for Cole Palmer to level from long range.

But Mikel Oyarzaba's late strike meant an agonising defeat for Kane and co, and prolonged his own personal trophy drought.

And afterwards, he candidly admitted his side didn't command enough possession, and fell short of the levels required for the full 90 minutes.

"Losing in a final is as tough as it gets," he told the BBC. "I think we did really well to get back in the game and get back to 1-1. We couldn't quite use that momentum to push on and we couldn't quite keep the ball and we got punished for it towards the end of the game. It's just painful as it can be in a football match.

"We didn't quite keep the same intensity and pressure. We didn't quite keep the ball well enough. It was the last stage of the tournament, there was a lot of tired legs and tired mentality there.

"We struggled and got caught by the ball in behind. It's down to big moments. We had a big moment at the end where they cleared one of the line and it could've been different. But yeah for now it's just really disappointing."

England were forced to come from behind in each of their three previous knockout games, and that sequence looked set to continue when Palmer blasted home. But Kane stopped short of saying the mental fatigue caused by their dramatic tournament had eventually taken its toll.

"It's been a tough tournament," he added. "We've had to show a lot of resilience, me personally, and the whole team as well. It's been a difficult ride. We've done extremely well to get here.

"Ultimately we're going to be judged on this game. We wanted to do it so badly for ourselves and also the fans and everyone who has believed in us the whole way. Right now it's just huge disappointment."

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Attention will now turn to the future of Gareth Southgate, who is yet to confirm if he'll continue as manager through to the 2026 World Cup. But Kane, 30, said it was too early to speculate on his future.

"We've made it clear - we love the manager," he insisted. "That's his decision. It's not the time to talk about it now. That's down to him, he'll go away and think about it. Right now we're all just hurting."

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