Gareth Southgate tried to bore Spain to sleep but England got what they deserved – Keith Jackson

It was, of course, the perfect happy ending. A glorious final act fit for a tournament laced with all manner of thrills and spills.

A victory for exhilarating Spanish youth and a win for the sport in general, coming as it did against a surly, powerful opponent with a bit of a personality defect. Much admired but difficult to like. But enough about the tennis. Because the triumph for Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon yesterday was always destined to be the appetiser.

What happened on Sunday night in Berlin was even more satisfying and every bit as richly deserved as the fairytale story written on Centre Court. This was the night Spain clubbed all England’s great expectations and crushed them with the force of an Alcaraz forehand. The 21-year-old carried out a rapid straight-set disembowelling of Novak Djokovic in order that he was able to sit down in front of a TV set in time to gorge himself on the main course of the evening.

And he wasn’t left disappointed as Spain led from the front, survived a second-half flutter and then came up with a late killer blow to ensure England’s long wait for football to come home will carry on indefinitely. The perfect happy ending? You’d better believe it – this was 90 minutes that summed up the difference between these two sides since the Euros kicked off four weeks ago.

Gareth Southgate will now return where football will not. And his part in this latest near miss will finally be examined, given the tactical negativity that blunted his team’s chances. Southgate made just one change to his starting line-up with Luke Shaw fit enough to start at left-back and leave Kieran Trippier relegated to the bench. And it soon became clear the manager’s bore them to sleep tactics weren’t changing much