And that was the Euros...

England won it the hard way, didn't they? And being honest, after losing their first game in the group stage, they looked very unlikely winners. In fact, my hunch was Spain would win. 

And yet, and yet, England somehow won all three knockout stage games while only holding a scoreline lead for one minute in six hours of football. Somehow they survived a penalty shoot out where three players in a row missed their spot kicks. Somehow they kept coming back and kept coming back and grubbing wins. Until they lifted the trophy.

My overall feeling is that there is something more heroic in not being the absolute technical best football nation and yet still dragging yourselves over the winning line time and time again. It makes for drama at least. 

And we did have drama. The two goals in three minutes against Sweden, Lucy Bronze strapping herself up like a warrior and then hammering home a penalty in the shoot out, the beyond late equaliser against Italy and the last gasp injury time penalty that won the game, Beth Mead's slip in the shoot out at the end of the final and the missed retake, and then another comeback to win the game and the tournament and the trophy. 

These are all memorable moments from a thoroughly enjoyable tournament. It took 30 games before we saw a 0-0 score-line and that game was settled by a goal in injury time. Compared to the turgid men's tournaments we have had recently, this was non-stop action. 

I may have been a bit dismissive of Cymru's Euros campaign in my previous post about the Euros. One thing that did occur to me was that the women's team have managed something the men's team never did and that is to qualify for a 16 team Euros finals. The men's team first qualified for the finals in 2016 - when there were 24 teams in the competition meaning eight more spaces up for grabs. (Soccer nerds will tell me that Cymru also qualified in 1976 because they were eliminated in the quarter finals, but only four teams appeared in the "finals" that year so quarter finals were effectively the last qualifying round for the finals.)

I asked Cathy what her most memorable moment of the Euros had been and she said Jess Fishlock's goal for Cymru against France. It was super fitting that Jess scored Cymru's first ever goal at a finals tournament, as she has been a superb leader for the Cymru women's team for many years. There was an interview with her dad on the BBC a couple of days later and seeing him trying to keep his emotions in check while on camera brought a lump to my throat. 

Hannah Cain's goal against England was a better goal than Jess's toe poke against France. But it came at the wrong end of a hefty defeat. Although, I still maintain the penalty that set England on their way to victory was a terrible decision. England got very lucky to be gifted the lead there and I think that changed the entire direction of the match. 

I'm not sure what my most memorable moment was. I didn't see Jess Fishlock's goal because I wasn't able to watch the game. I've mentioned some of the England moments already. Germany's Ann-Katrin Berger's incredible save to prevent an own goal against France was an immense display of goalkeeping - possibly one of the best saves I've ever seen in a live televised game. 

The real test of how good a tournament has been is how you feel at the end. I enjoyed England's win. But I also felt sad that the finals were over. It's been brilliant football, engrossing entertainment, nail=bitingly tense, and now... it's over. But always to be remembered as one of the great tournaments of all time.