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.

And despite supersub Cole Palmer threatening to rescue them with an equaliser, Mikel Oyarzabal netted the 86th-minute winner for Spain’s deserving champions. 

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. 

Spain were a far superior football team for the past four weeks, England were a team living on moments. 

And that is how the final panned out, Spain passed and moved England to smithereens, while England enjoyed just one moment from Palmer.

Football is not coming home as the Three Lions became the first team to ever lose back-to-back Euros final – and Southgate will surely now be heading off now. 

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.