Spain won their second World Cup through an unyielding ability to outlast their opponents, and now England find themselves on the wrong end of that endurance.
Not for the first time, as he is all too grimly aware, an England defeat hinged on a missed penalty by their usually so reliable captain. When Harry Kane slipped at the crucial moment, nudging the ball with his standing foot by accident, time slowed just for a few seconds, and the Bayern Munich man’s spot-kick bounced back off the bar.
