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They got to trudge past the trophy, given an immediate illustration of what they could have won. England were so close – denied by an 86th-minute winner in the final – and yet perhaps also so far away. They were the second-best side in Euro 2024 in the sense they stretched their participation right to the end; not in others, though. But for Jude Bellingham’s magnificent overhead kick against Slovakia, they would have exited early and ignominiously. Perhaps Germany were the second-finest side over the month.
