In photos: the highs and lows of the Euro 2024 final

It’s 3pm on Sunday 14^th July 2024. The front of Liverpool Street Station, in the heart of London’s financial district, is packed with drunk lads egging each other on to perform tricks for my camera. I’m wearing my ​“rucksack studio” which is a makeshift photobooth I carry on my back to capture portraits on the streets of the city.

Beer is flying through the air as thousands of England fans pour out of trains bringing them in from Essex and the surrounding areas. Football chants echo between the skyscrapers as they descend into pubs, parks and fan parks dotted across the capital. I walk through trendy Shoreditch and Old Street, along the canal to London Fields snapping as I go. The crowd becomes friendlier and more stylish as I move through the less corporate neighbourhoods of east London.

Like many, I’m still not quite sure how England made it to the Euro 2024 finals. It’s been a stuttering campaign for Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions, with many fans expressing frustration at the stagnation and rigidity of the England manager’s tactics. A far departure from the Southgate mania that swept the country during the summer of 2021 and the delayed Euro 2020 campaign. Despite it all, everywhere I go, there is hope. Belief that finally, after nearly 60 years of pain, football is coming home.

You can hear the crowd outside London Fields’ Pub on the Park from over a kilometre away. Inside the pub and its expansive smoking area, fans are squeezed in, precariously carrying pitchers of beer to tables. Outside a couple of thousand people have spilled out onto the streets and into the park. Some have climbed up on fences, cars or trees, hoping to catch the corner of the screens in the pub to follow the game. Others have set up their laptops in the park and some were just there to soak up the vibe.

A torturous 90 minutes ended, once again in defeat. A 73^rd minute equaliser from Chelsea’s Cole Palmer saw the crowds in the park with jubilation, putting England back in the game after Spain’s Nico William’s took the lead with a goal just two minutes into the second half. It was, ultimately not to be, with Spain’s Mikel Oyarzabal putting a second goal past England’s Jordan Pickford in the 86^th minute of the match. An agonisingly close set of chances almost reignited England’s hopes but it was too late and a second Euro final in a row was lost.

In the aftermath of the final against Italy in Euro 2020, which ended in a penalty shootout, racist abuse was directed at players like Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka. The most extreme England fans have a reputation for hooliganism but there was none of that on the streets of east London last night.

In its place was the multicultural vibrance that’s at the heart of the city. People came together to have fun, despite their differences — unity and hope filling the air. This time, football did not come home, but keep dreaming, because there’s so much beauty in it.

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