Chris Sutton believes England’s ‘best chance’ of winning the Euro 2024 final against Spain is if they use Bukayo Saka to target Marc Cucurella.
Despite failing to find their best form and coming under intense scrutiny, the Three Lions have gone all the way to their second consecutive European Championship final.
England’s best performance at the tournament by far came in their 2-1 comeback win over the Netherlands in the semi-final, but even that required a 91st-minute winner from substitute Ollie Watkins.
Spain, on the other hand, are most people’s pick for best team at the tournament so far, winning all six of their games despite facing the likes of Italy, Croatia, Germany and France, while scoring more goals (13) than any other team.
Saka is England’s ‘best chance’, says Sutton
Gareth Southgate’s men will be the marginal underdogs in Berlin on Sunday, but still possess a team full of world-class quality that, on any given day, can beat the very best.
One of their stars in Germany has been Bukayo Saka, who scored England’s equaliser in the quarter-final against Switzerland, while he’s in the top two among his teammates for take-ons completed (14), chances created (6) and crosses completed (7).
Saka is most likely to go head-to-head with Marc Cucurella on Sunday in an individual duel that will bring the Arsenal vs Chelsea rivalry to the international stage.
Cucurella has proved a lot of doubters wrong with his strong performances at this tournament for Spain, but former England striker Sutton still believes this is an area England can profit from greatly.
“England’s best chance is probably if they can get Saka one-on-one with Marc Cucurella — Spain’s left-back — because he can cause him all sorts of problems,” Sutton wrote in his predictions column for BBC Sport.
“That’s not because I think Cucurella is a poor player, by the way, more because I don’t see any weaknesses in any other areas of the Spain team.”
Despite Saka’s potential to cause havoc against Spain, Sutton is still backing La Roja for a 2-1 win.
“Southgate’s side are growing in confidence, plus they have togetherness and individual players who can hurt Spain, but I don’t think it will be enough,” he said.
“Nothing would please me more than seeing England get over the line and for Southgate to fly home as a European champion, but I have not been backing them blindly throughout and I am not going to start now.
“I am going with Spain to win, because they are in sync, they have been so superior so far… and I don’t see England stopping them.”
spain can not defit england