Spain vs England Betting Tips: Mystery man Southgate plays it his way

Sunday, July 14. Kick-off 20:00. It's the final of Euro 2024 - Spain vs England.

It's been a rocky road to Berlin for England, while Spain have impressed as the tournament's most fluid and impressive outfit. Ninety minutes and possibly more awaits. For one or the other of these two great football nations destiny beckons, with a trophy to lift and history to create. Oh go on then ...

Spain vs England Odds

Euro 2024 Odds

One of the criminally limited advantages of having more summers on your back than is preferable is having seen plenty of amazing sport. The ability to compare eras without reference to the admirable and philanthropic Miss Taylor Swift.

Weighing this England team against its many antecedents, and indeed coach Gareth Southgate, is not however an easy task, despite all that experience.

The bare bones are impressive enough. Very. Sunday’s European Championship final against Spain will be a second successive such event, after disappointment at Wembley last time against Italy.

A major final has now been reached away from these shores for the very first time in our history, and Southgate has surpassed 100 matches at the English helm, just the third to do so.

Harmony is hugely evident within the ranks of the multi-millionaire sportsmen representing our green and pleasant land, where once there were cliques and tribal lines, firmly drawn.

Southgate isn’t like any England boss I can readily recall. He’s economical with virtually everything, especially substitutes, and appears to operate behind a mask of steel. That makes it easier to take a pop when results and/or performances are disappointing, as has certainly been the case in the earlier parts of this tournament.

England were abject - but managed to stay afloat. Part Lady Luck, sure, but as Gary Player once memorably reflected, the harder I try the luckier I get. England stubbornly refused to leave the party and crucially had the resolve and the talent to survive, albeit mainly in second gear with two flats and a fuel pump issue.

Southgate is obviously entirely convincing in the locker room, even if us mortals remain undecided, and occasionally very decidedly underwhelmed.

Cue a semi-final against the Netherlands, and a half of football that reminded us why Phil Foden is Footballer of the Year. Bukayo Saka shone, a man so beloved by Arsenal fans they’ll tell you in a heartbeat ‘Phil who?’

Kobbie Mainoo channelled N’Golo Kante with a touch of (insert fabulously gifted midfield maestro of choice) thrown in for good measure. They were purring – but then someone rather unhelpfully blew for half time and we were swiftly returned to steerage after swanning around in the Horatio Nelson Club enclosure for the first time in what feels like an age.

In the game’s dying embers, seemingly before the low-octane inevitability of extra-time and more, Cole Palmer fed Ollie Watkins, and Watkins did what Watkins has been doing for Aston Villa all season – he found the back of the net with a sublime, unstoppable strike across 'keeper Verbruggen. It was one of his four touches of the football. Less is more in Southgate-land.

Two substitutes – both given a mere 10 minutes to help make history. They managed their assignment with clinical efficiency and seconds to spare.

So – we can but salute our former Euro ’96 centre-back for what is statistically an outstanding period of achievement. That we see halves of football like the one mentioned above so infrequently will be a criticism he’ll have to field eternally, given the talent at his disposal.

Total goals over 2.5 @ 11/8

Spain of course now lie in wait, and I could watch Dani Olmo, Lamine Yamal, Nico Williams and the imperious midfield general Rodrigo Hernández Cascante all day long.

They move the ball faster and more crisply than anyone here in Germany. Goals then, I hear you say? Oh yes. With the attacking talent on show, and the magnitude of the occasion, I'm all over it.

Marc Cucurella is unrecognisable. Aymeric Laporte a cultured rock. God, it’s going to be tough. One way or another it might just be Gareth’s farewell, and if so he can look for a plum club role with his stock at an all-time high. Couldn’t have said that about a fortnight ago.

Not sure we’ll ever ‘know’ him, as we knew Bobby Robson. El Tel. Sir Alf. But he’s evidently a very fine manager of people, a quality vastly underrated.

Should England win, it will soon be Sir Gareth, and what on earth was all that negativity about? Should that prove beyond them, and to be fair it’s one hell of an ask against a team of this calibre, all the allegations about the mis-use of generational talent will linger, but with a warranted sense of gentility and respect.

The players will simply remember him as the best schoolmaster they ever had. Whatever does or doesn’t happen at Buckingham Palace down the line he’ll always be ‘Sir’ to them.

Football, eh? Funny old game, with bells on.

Both teams to score @ 1/1

It follows that as I'm keen on over 2.5 goals, it's likely in my book that the heavy lifting will be shared. Quite in what proportions is the million-dollar question, but I'm leaving that to keener, braver minds.

I've been watching this stuff for too long to be dogmatic about any likely outcome. It's fingers and toes crossing time, grab a glass of something and a decidedly naughty snack, while respectfully asking your celestial body of choice for any vaguely divine intervention that might just be available. Enjoy!

Football Betting Tips from Betfred Insights.