Spain Beat England Again But the Real Difference Wasn't Talent

England were 2–1 up at Wembley.

The crowd was behind them.

Spain had already scored through Lamine Yamal, but England responded through Anthony Gordon and Harry Kane.

For a moment, it looked like the script had finally changed.

Then Spain changed it again.

Spain won 3–2.

And once again, Mikel Oyarzabal was the man who ended England's hopes.

The same player who scored the winning goal against England in the Euro 2024 final did it again at Wembley. UEFA confirms that Oyarzabal's 74th-minute goal completed Spain's comeback after Álex Baena had equalised.

But I don't think the biggest story is Oyarzabal.

And I don't think England's problem is a lack of talent.

The interesting difference was control.

England showed they could hurt Spain.

They went behind almost immediately, recovered, scored twice and took the lead against the world champions.

That's significant.

But once Spain regained their footing, England struggled to stop the game from moving back into Spanish hands.

Spain didn't need to panic after going 2–1 down.

They kept playing.

Baena came on and scored.

Then he turned provider for Oyarzabal.

Suddenly Spain were ahead again.

And that is what makes this Spanish team so difficult to deal with.

They can survive a bad moment without abandoning their identity.

They have players who can change a match from the bench.

And they have the confidence of a team that has now gone 39 matches unbeaten, according to Reuters.

England, meanwhile, shouldn't walk away from Wembley thinking everything is broken.

They lost a five-goal thriller against the world champions.

They also showed enough attacking quality to turn the game around after conceding early.

But Thomas Tuchel has a major question to answer:

When England take control against the very best teams, can they actually keep control?

Because that's the difference I'm seeing.

Not talent.

Not courage.

Not even attacking quality.

Game management.

Spain seem to understand how to survive the moments when matches become chaotic.

England are still learning how to do it.

And perhaps that's why this defeat is more useful than another comfortable win would have been.

Spain have shown England the level.

Now England have to figure out how to reach it.

Do you think England's biggest problem is game management, or did Spain simply have the better solutions when the match became chaotic?