LONDON — Spain beat England 3-2 in the Nations League at Wembley, where captain Harry Kane missed a second-half penalty and Thomas Tuchel's call to "embrace the chaos" collided with the control that makes the reigning world and European champions serial winners. The defeat was England's first game since the World Cup semi-final loss to Argentina, and extended Spain's unbeaten run to 39 games.
England were fortunate to trail only 1-0 after 36 minutes. Marc Guehi's turn into trouble gifted Lamine Yamal an opener inside two minutes, before Ferran Torres had a goal ruled out for offside, was denied by James Trafford and then rolled wide when clean through. England then led at the break through Anthony Gordon's composed finish and Harry Kane's deflected header, but Kane's penalty just after the restart proved the turning point when he slipped, touched the ball twice and hit the bar. Nico O'Reilly coughed up possession for Alex Baena's equaliser before substitute Mikel Oyarzabal — who scored the winner in the Euro 2024 final against England in Berlin — settled matters after 74 minutes.
Tuchel defended his approach to BBC Radio 5 Live, saying: "I'm not sure there was a lot of chaos. We had an incredible amount of high-ball recoveries in the opponent's half. I think 15 more than Spain. Overall, I think 15 in total in the first half. That only goes against a team like Spain if we play man to man, so we were very brave." He added: "The defending and the deep block were excellent, except for the third goal where we got cut open through the middle. This normally should not happen," and "Offensively, I think we played in a clear structure. We tried to switch sides a lot. We tried to put the full-backs up to make the difference and they did. A lot of good stuff but unfortunately not the result." On the gap, he said: "We saw no gap except for the technical execution. In the last 20 metres, they were superior than us."
Kane said: "On another day we could have won," adding: "I spoke before that we reached good levels at the World Cup but didn't quite put a full 90 minutes together. It was probably similar again here. We had a couple of good moments though, that period was as good as we've played in a long, long time and that's the standard we know we can reach," and "We're playing against the world champions, the European champions, and we went toe-to-toe. On another day for sure we'd have won that game." Trafford, given two games before first-choice Jordan Pickford returns, was blameless despite a defence that has now shipped 13 goals in its last six matches in all competitions after conceding only seven in the first 17 games under Tuchel. The night was difficult for Manchester City duo Guehi and O'Reilly and for Jarell Quansah, handed the nod at right-back ahead of recalled Trent Alexander-Arnold but uncertain throughout in an unnatural role.
Once England stopped mimicking Spain's passing style and followed their own DNA with power and pace, they threatened, with Gordon — now at Barcelona — and Jude Bellingham at Real Madrid standing out as England's best performers. As against Argentina in the World Cup semi-final in Atlanta, England led through Gordon and lost, but this time went down swinging rather than in retreat. The display offered encouragement after a shaky opening 25 minutes, yet underlined the lesson that chaos without control is a loser's strategy at elite level against a Spain side that remains the benchmark while England chase a first major men's honour since the 1966 World Cup. The performance echoed Spain's 3-2 win where Bellingham and Gordon shone in the ratings.