In photos: the highs and lows of the Euro 2024 final
- Text by Ossi Piispanen
- Photography by Ossi Piispanen

It’s 3pm on Sunday 14th 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 73rd 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 86th 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.

Latest on Huck

“Struggle helps people come together”: Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory
Huck’s February interview — To hear more about the release of the indie darling’s first collaborative album, we caught up with her and Devra Hoff to hear about the record, motherhood in music and why the ’80s are back,
Written by: Isaac Muk

Nxdia: “Poems became an escape for me”
What Made Me — In this series, we ask artists and rebels about the forces and experiences that shaped who they are. Today, it’s Egyptian-British alt-pop shapeshifter Nxdia.
Written by: Nxdia

Kathy Shorr’s splashy portraits inside limousines
The Ride of a Lifetime — Wanting to marry a love of cars and photography, Kathy Shorr worked as a limousine driver in the ’80s to use as a studio on wheels. Her new photobook explores her archive.
Written by: Miss Rosen

Lewd tales of live sex shows in ’80s Times Square
Peep Man — Before its LED-beaming modern refresh, the Manhattan plaza was a hotbed for seedy transgression. A new memoir revisits its red light district heyday.
Written by: Miss Rosen

In a world of noise, IC3PEAK are finding radicality in the quiet
Coming Home — Having once been held up as a symbol of Russian youth activism and rebellion, the experimental duo are now living in exile. Their latest album explores their new reality.
Written by: Isaac Muk

Are we steamrolling towards the apocalypse?
One second closer to midnight — While the rolling news cycle, intensifying climate crisis and rapidly advancing technology can make it feel as if the end days are upon us, newsletter columnist Emma Garland remembers that things have always been terrible, and that is a natural part of human life.
Written by: Emma Garland