Jude Bellingham: “We wanted to make the people of England proud ...

Spain beat England 2-1 in the Euro 2024 final on Sunday and became the most successful team in the history of the competition with four titles. England and Real Madrid superstar Jude Bellingham did all he could to take England to glory, but ultimately fell short after another very good display from Spain.

After the game, Bellingham spoke to the media and gave a pretty lengthy interview about the game and everything else surrounding it, most importantly talking about how the players were not able to make the country proud. He said: “We probably didn’t play our best game, but there were definitely some good moments. We fought, we got back into the game, and then to concede that late goal [was] heartbreaking. We all wanted nothing more than to make history, to make the people of England proud. We didn’t manage to do it. We didn’t quite deliver.”

How difficult it was to lose in the final minutes of the game

“Really difficult. I think we sacrificed a lot throughout the last weeks. It’s so tough these days with the crazy schedules and then coming together for the end of the season for one last tournament. It’s difficult on the body, mentally, physically, you are exhausted — but for our country, we wanted to give everything, and to lose in that way is really cruel.”

What’s next for England, in the short run

“I am sure as a team we will go on to analyze [why we lost], but yeah, I think it’s a young group. Still, it’s very disappointing because, at some point, we have to deliver — but there are experiences and things we can take from this moment going forward. I suppose if you look at everything negatively, nothing will ever change. It’s important we pick the positives and negatives together and find a way to get it over the line.

“It’s one of those things where you really need more time to digest it and analyze it. We will do that as a team, individually, look at how it went and bounce back Like I said, it’s a young team, we have a lot of potential, and I know people will be frustrated that we have not delivered yet, but I definitely feel our time is coming.”

If the goal against Slovakia gives Jude Bellingham some satisfaction

“Not really. I came here to win. We came here to win. Like I said, it’s an experience we can take going into the next one.”

England’s mentality

“I still believed we were in the game, even when they scored to make it 2-1. The thing about this team is we showed throughout the tournament that we are never going to quit. We were not going to go out without taking risks towards the end of the game. We had a couple of headers blocked off the line at the end there. It’s really tough, but we got to find a way to pick our heads up and go again.”