Once again the European Championships have come and gone in the blink of an eye.
Spain ended the tournament victorious with a 2-1 win over Gareth Southgate’s England in the final to lift the trophy.
A Nico Williams goal got the final up and running just after half time thanks to an assist from Lamine Yamal, now the youngest goal scorer at any European Championships.
With Cole Palmer stepping onto the pitch in place of United’s Kobbie Mainoo, it only took the Chelsea star three minutes to perfectly place the ball into the bottom left hand corner to bring England level.
Unfortunately for the Three Lions, Spain fought back in the final minutes of the game with an incredible low ball cross from Marc Cucurella connecting with a lunging Mikel Oyarzabal, beating Jordan Pickford at the near post to send the Spanish ahead 2-1.
Incredibly it looked as though England would bring it back with an incredibly tense corner situations seeing Unai Simon save a Declan Rice header, with Ivan Toney heading the rebound only to be cleared off the line by United target Dani Olmo, with the midfielder saving the day in defence as well as ending the tournament as joint Golden Boot winning, being the hero for his team on both sides of the pitch.
This late response from England was ultimately not enough to claw the team back and send the game to extra-time, with referee Francois Letexier blowing his whistle to crown Spain the champions for a record fourth time.
Whilst finalists Jordan Pickford, Dani Olmo, Nico Williams, Fabian Ruiz, Rodri and Lamine Yamal all made it onto the list of the ten best player of the tournament, unfortunately one United star has found his way onto the list of the worst players at the tournament this year.
The Daily Mail have reported that United’s striker Rasmus Hojlund unfortunately is that player in question, with the star not living up to expectation at his first European Championship, given an average rating of 6.53 and labelled a “flop”.
The 21-year-old made four appearances, playing all of Denmark’s group stage matches against England, Slovenia and Serbia, and starting against Germany in the round of 16.
Unfortunately for the striker, he was not able to convert or create any assists across his time on the pitch, with Denmark only scoring two goals in the tournament thanks to United teammate Christian Eriksen and Sporting Lisbon star Morten Hjulmand.
Despite the difficulty of the opposition, facing Germany in the Round of 16, Hojlund’s best chances actually came in the knockout round match against the German side. However the striker lacked the composure and clinical finishing when it mattered.
Hopefully for United fans, Hojlund can get back to his goal scoring ways throughout the pre-season as he’ll now be competing against Joshua Zirkzee for that spot as first-choice striker at Old Trafford.
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