KEEP on living dangerously and eventually you are going to slip and break your necks.

Gareth Southgate’s men had strolled along a tightrope throughout this entire tournament, falling behind in all four of their knock-out ties.

England became the first side to ever lose back-to-back Euros finals

It was heartbreak for England again in the final

The Three Lions were just minutes away from forcing the match to extra-time

Gareth Southgate now has a decision to make on his future

Nico Williams finished coolly to put Spain 1-0 up

Cole Palmer had an instant impact off the bench as he equalised with a brilliant strike

Only for Mikel Oyarzabal to score the winner

England had been poor throughout most of this Euros and they were thoroughly outplayed for the vast majority of the final.

There may have been late heartbreak but this was not a case of glorious failure.

Over the last four weeks, Spain has been a significantly better football team than England, who seemed to be a team in the moment.

And thus it turned out in the end: England got barely one minute from Palmer, while Spain advanced and completely destroyed England.

The Three Lions were the first team to ever lose back-to-back European Championship finals, therefore football is not returning home. Southgate will undoubtedly be leaving soon.

He has raised England significantly over these past eight years but after two finals, a semi and a quarter-final, he will go down in history as a nearly man.

A nearly man who succeeded a whole bunch of nowhere-near men – but a nearly man all the same.

Spain found a way to win