Thursday, September 19, 2024

Euro 2024 final- Brothers united by family, divided by football – BBC News

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Image caption, Davide (L) and Rafael (R) Garcia-Levy are siblings with different footballing priorities

  • Author, Kaushal Menon Muralidaran
  • Role, BBC News, West of England

Davide and Rafael Garcia-Levy are siblings, one lives in Bristol and the other in Saltford.

On any other day, Davide being an England fan and Rafael being a Spain fan would border on mundane.

Dav and Raf, as they like to be called, have an English mother and Spanish father.

Although the pair grew up in England, they have a large extended family from Spain.

So what influenced their decision to support either team?

“I live over here and the vibe’s crazy in the pubs and you’ve got to go with it, haven’t you?”, said Dav, 34.

Raf, 32, explained his reasoning: “Spain just play better football, as everyone knows.”

“We’ve won every single game in this competition, one more game left and I think we have it.”

Image source, Photo by MOHAMED MESSARA/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock (14580764sz)

Image caption, Ollie Watkins’ winner helped England beat the Netherlands to reach the final

England fan Dav said: “We started slow but the ball is in motion now and I feel like we played all right against Netherlands, we played well.

“I did say from the beginning, [it would be a] Spain-England final. I just had the feeling that would be the outcome.”

He was watching the semi-final from a pub and said when Ollie Watkins scored the winning goal: “The pub went crazy, everyone was on the phone ringing family members. I was ecstatic.”

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, Teenager Lamine Yamal has a goal and three assists for Spain at Euro 2024

Raf is backing Spain’s newest golden boy Lamine Yamal to deliver: “[At] 16 years old, he plays absolutely brilliant. Personally, I think he’s going to be the next [Lionel] Messi” he says.

The brothers however, are unlikely to watch the match together.

Dav said he would be watching the game out with other England fans. “It’s completely different to watching it in the pub and watching it at home. So, I’m gonna find a nice spot full of England fans and watch it there.”

Raf said: “I think I’ll be safe and probably watch at home.”

Their predictions- Dav has backed England to win 3-2, while Raf has predicted a 2-1 victory for Spain.

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