🏆 Best Player, Goal and more! OneFootball's ultimate EURO 2024 review | OneFootball

A month-long festival of football concluded in Berlin on Sunday evening, with Spain beating England to win EURO 2024.

Now, our writers take a look at the best and worst bits of the tournament.

👏 Who was your Player of the Tournament?

Ben Browning: I want to say Dani Olmo, but with the midfielder not having started much for Spain it is hard to justify. With that in mind, I’ve opted for team-mate Nico Williams, who has added several million to his price tag this summer with some sparkling performances.

Richard Buxton: Cody Gakpo deserves huge credit for the Netherlands’ extended run and not just his impressive goal return. The Liverpool forward has been a perfect interlocker on the international stage as much as he is at club level.

Chloe Digby: My vote goes to Kobbie Mainoo. He came into the England side following the failed Trent Alexander-Arnold and Conor Gallagher experiments and now it almost feels like he’s been in that midfield spot forever. Except he hasn’t. The EURO 2024 final was his ninth game for England and he’s only made 25 total Premier League appearances. Stunning.

Peter Fitzpatrick: Very few of the supposed best players in the world performed this summer, but Rodri did, as he has for much of the last three years. He makes everyone around him better and provided the base for his Spanish teammates to flourish.

Alex Mott: How can it be anyone other than Lamine Yamal? The 16-year-old has showed maturity beyond his years at this tournament, capping it all off with that stunner against France.

Pádraig Whelan: In a side surrounded by star talent, Fabián Ruiz didn’t appear to get the credit he deserved but he was truly outstanding from start to finish in the tournament. His performances in midfield allowed La Roja to shine.

🚀 What was your Goal of the Tournament?

BB: It’s hard to look past Real Madrid talent Arda Güler’s sparkling effort for Turkey in the group stages, letting fly from 30 yards and finding the corner to help his side beat Georgia.

RB: It has to be Lamine Yamal’s wonder strike to level up Spain’s semi-final with France. The definition of ‘golazo’.

CD: I’m possibly going a bit niche here, but I really enjoyed Nicolae Stanciu’s barnstormer for Romania when they played Ukraine. Watch and enjoy.

PF: It might not have been the “best” goal but Christian Eriksen scoring Denmark’s opener against Slovenia near-three years after he nearly lost his life at the Championship was a very special moment.

AM: Xherdan Shaqiri really is the ultimate tournament player and showed that with this absolute barn-burner against Scotland.

PW: In the game of the tournament, Türkiye’s Mert Müldür produced the goal of the tournament with a sublime volley.

🥊 The match or moment that will live longest in the memory was …

BB: Jude Bellingham’s overhead kick in the final seconds to keep England at the tournament against Slovakia. As he said, “who else?”

RB: Spain’s quarter-final win over Germany has to be one of the games of the tournament. A real end-to-end encounter and settled by Mikel Merino scoring at the same stadium as his father had, 33 years earlier.

CD: For me it was the semi-final between France and Spain. Fascinating for a neutral, watching a France side struggling for form take the lead, only for Spain to spark into their best selves and overturn the deficit through *that* Yamal goal and Olmo’s brilliant effort too.

PF: Most of the best moments of this tournament have involved the so-called “smaller nations” and nothing topped Georgia knocking off Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal for both their first-ever major tournament win and qualification to the last 16.

AM: The knockout rounds didn’t exactly blow us away but the group stage at this tournament was sensational. Who can forget those early games with stoppage time goals for Albania, Türkiye and Georgia? Great days.

PW: It was telling that even in the immediate aftermath of Mert Günok’s stunning last gasp save to help Türkiye overcome Austria, it was already being talked about as one of the all-time great saves. And rightly so.

🤯 Who or what surprised you most at EURO 2024?

RB: The Netherlands’ best-laid plans unravelled before a ball was even kicked with a trio of injury withdrawals. Credit where it’s due, though, Ronald Koeman’s side regrouped and went further than anticipated.

CD: They had a bad night when they went out against Türkiye, but before that Austria really surprised me with their tenacity and tactical discipline. Ralf Rangnick is obviously better than many in England gave him credit for.

PF: Both how good Spain were and how brilliant their football was. They shed their “tiki-taka” reputation and brought back actual wingers to the game on their way to a record-breaking fourth title. Take a bow, Luis de la Fuente.

AM: I fully expected France to sweep all before at this tournament, with a squad that was the envy of every nation attending. As it was though, Didier Deschamps’ side were pretty lacklustre.

PW: On paper prior to the tournament, Romania looked to have one of the weakest squads and even in their homeland, there were few reasons for optimism. But they exceeded expectations to reach the knockout stage and their 3-0 thrashing of Ukraine was one of the competition’s biggest shocks.

🤯 Who or what your biggest disappointment?

BB: France are stacked with talent from front to back but were one of the most boring sides to watch in Germany. A French player didn’t manage a goal from open play until the semi-final and they laboured to results instead of blowing the competition away.

RB: Portugal overindulging Cristiano Ronaldo at all costs. Yes, he’s the captain but there were games in their route to the quarter-finals where Diogo Jota would have been far more effective than a player whose powers have waned.

CD: I don’t think anyone thought Italy would retain their title, but their performance was a real letdown. Luciano Spalletti won the Scudetto the season before last with Napoli and after Italy’s first game I thought he might’ve modernised their tactics. Still a lot of work to do.

PF: The tactics employed by France, England and Portugal. When you have that level of talent, there is zero reason to play “suffer ball” in hope of sneaking through. Spain and Germany, as well as Türkiye, Austria and Georgia, showed that fun and football can still be combined.

PW: Even in a difficult group, Scotland’s performances (particularly in the tournament opener and their loss to Hungary) given the quality of the squad were extremely disappointing. They can and should be better than they showed.