Euro 2024 final: It's the hype that kills you - Chris Waters

We have the advantage, of course, of knowing the outcome. Gary Lineker’s introduction to the BBC coverage of the Euro final was the prelude instead to a night of disappointment.

It didn’t change the story of football in our country forever, and still no England team has won a major tournament on foreign soil. Sporting immortality remains as tantalisingly out of reach as it ever did. Football, inevitably, didn’t come home.

It’s not so much the hope that kills you, it’s the hype. The BBC’s 90-minute pre-match build-up – a game before a game – featured more fanfare than Elgar managed in Pomp and Circumstance.

There was inspirational poetry, rousing music, and, of course, images of ‘66 flashing here and there. They think it’s all over – it was soon, with a 2-1 win for the superior Spanish.

All of us in the media, of course, are guilty of hyping things up to some degree or other. Part of that is a result of having so much air-time or columns to fill; part is the shifting trends of society and the changing nature of consumer demands.

The BBC, for the most part, I thought, got it right, although whether we really needed to hear messages of support from such as Ellie Goulding and Ross Kemp is open to question (other celebrities are – and indeed were available, wheeled out en masse to wish England good luck).

My personal threshold was breached in a rather sickly segment with Andy Woodman, Gareth Southgate’s best man, who spoke of the England manager’s “beautiful humanity”. I'm sure that Southgate is a lovely chap, but he isn’t Nelson Mandela.

Of course, on nights such as these – as on election nights – one must make a decision: BBC or ITV? As one who grew up on the likes of Des Lynam, Jimmy Hill, Barry Davies and John Motson, loyalty to the former is not easily discarded, even if the trio of pundits alongside Lineker – Rio Ferdinand, Juan Mata and Micah Richards – were not a patch on ITV’s Roy Keane, Gary Neville and, at an absolute push, Ian Wright.

The suited Lineker looked sharp and serious, as though broadcasting from outside Buckingham Palace on a sober occasion. Ferdinand – who always looks serious – and Richards were similarly dressed, contrasting with the jacket and white T-shirt combo sported by Mata, as if to distinguish him from the others.

The nation soon warmed to the ex-Spain midfielder when he ventured that La Roja were “afraid” of England. Not quite as much as England were afraid of Lamine Yamal, however, the day after the winger’s 17th birthday.

“Rio, how do England stop him, apart from locking him in the Spanish team’s creche?” enquired Lineker, deadpan.

Ferdinand admitted that it wouldn’t be easy, praised the teenager and then finally shrugged with a smile: “Smack him. Kick him out of the game. Simple as that.”

“Bit over the top, that, isn’t it, Rio?” interjected Richards. “Child cruelty,” he added. Guffaws all round.

The exchange seemed briefly to distract Lineker. As the camera panned around the Olympiastadion, soaked in sunlight beneath a flawless blue sky, he picked out Arsene Wenger in the crowd. “There’s a man who needs no interruption, does he,” said Lineker. No, he doesn’t, and nor does he need any introduction.

After more good luck messages from such as Declan Rice’s PE teacher (who else?), Lineker’s last instruction before kick-off was this: “Ok, it’s time. Wear your lucky shirt. Sit where you always sit. Do whatever it takes. It’s England against Spain. It’s going to be a bumpy ride. Buckle up everyone. Your commentators, Alan Shearer and Guy Mowbray...”

After a cagey first half, predictably goalless, a lugubrious Lineker re-greeted: “Didn’t expect it to be a comfortable ride, did you?” Er, no, we didn’t.

“It’s only going to get more tense the longer it remains goalless,” Mowbray reminded when the action resumed, seconds before Spain took the lead through Nico Williams. Only now, of course, it was more tense.

We all know the rest… Cole Palmer equalised with an exquisite left-footer – why didn’t he start the match? – before La Roja found an extra gear and Mikel Oyarzabal fired home.

“For England, the interminable wait goes on,” mused Mowbray, capturing the nation’s disappointment.

Then, after aeons of post-match analysis, the final word was Lineker’s: “Well, that’s it. It’s England pain again as Spain reign. From all of us here, a very good night.”

Night, Gary. The hype killed us – and the hope had gone. No doubt we’ll do it again in a couple of years.