Gary Neville has criticised Gareth Southgate's decision not to make substitutions at half-time during the Euro 2024 final, as Spain began to dominate the match. The former England defender believes the manager should have replaced Harry Kane and Kobbie Mainoo with Ollie Watkins and Anthony Gordon respectively.
Speaking on Sky Sports, Neville argued that England needed more pace on the counter-attack. 'At half-time I felt Ollie Watkins should have come on for Harry Kane and Anthony Gordon should come in on the left, with Jude Bellingham move back into central midfield,' he said.
Spain took the lead just two minutes into the second half through Nico Williams. Southgate eventually introduced Watkins and Cole Palmer in the 61st minute, with Palmer scoring the equaliser three minutes later. However, Spain substitute Mikel Oyarzabal scored the winner in the 86th minute.
Neville acknowledged the difficulty of managing from the sidelines but insisted the changes were necessary. 'We were playing deep, we were being pushed back deep by a fantastic Spain team. When you're playing deep you need to be able to counter-attack but we didn't have that,' he added.
England's Cole Palmer expressed disappointment after the match but praised the team's spirit. 'I'm gutted. We got to another final, there's positives to take but everyone wanted to go one step further and we didn't,' he told ITV.
