IT was the moment when Gareth Southgate finally ran out of great escapes.
John Stones leaps, Unai Simon parries, Marc Guehi nods the rebound goalwards – and up pops Dani Olmo to head clear from right under the bar.
The man whose attacking brilliance had been at the heart of everything good about this Spanish side couldn’t have celebrated more wildly if he’d scored the winner itself.
But right then, his defensive heroics meant just as much – and made sure that justice was done.
Because for all that England had been resilient, they’d been stubborn, they’d been heroic at times and even though they’d dragged themselves off the canvas yet again here to give themselves a shot at glory, they hadn’t deserved to lift the trophy.
As so often in this tournament, they were too passive, too indecisive, too content to sit and wait for the opposition to make the first move.
And, yes, as so often they produced one of those moments of theirs when ice-cold sub Cole Palmer buried on of the best goals of the entire month.
Inside the final five minutes, though, another man who’d come off the bench – Real Sociedad journeyman Mikel Oyarzabal popped up to win it and make his nation the first to win the title four times.
This team of all talents are also the first-ever to win all seven games at a Euros.
They did it with a superkid in Lamine Yamal who only turned 17 on the eve of the final, with a left-winger in 22-year-old Nico Williams whose opener lit the touch paper on a thrilling second half.
They were the most free-flowing, the most exciting, the most intelligent, the most joyous of all 32 sides who came and went from Germany.
Truth is, they were everything England were not.
Their coach Luis de la Fuente made things happens, while Southgate waited for them to happen.
At their best, they swaggered like matadors. At their worst, the English staggered like punch-drunk boxers.
Their cycle of domination might just be at its beginning.
England’s under a nearly man of a gaffer is surely at an end.
The pattern of what will surely be his final game in charge was set from the off, with Spain owning the ball and England doing little more than borrow it back long enough to give it away again.
All Southgate’s men could do was keep their shape and close down the spaces and it was fully ten minutes before they managed to put half a dozen passes together, even if in truth all their possession did was let the opposition take a breather.
Once they’d refilled their lungs, forward they powered again, Williams dancing in behind Kyle Walker and and forcing Stones to make a brilliant blocking tackle just as the trigger was being pulled.
From the stands, the England hordes who massively outnumbered the Spaniards roared for more, for better, because they knew that this one was going to come down to those moments, the ones they’ve lived for over the past four weeks.
Unfortunately for them, the first big moment that really mattered came less than two minutes after the break – and it hit them like a punch in the guts.
Yamal dodged in off the right, away from Luke Shaw for just about the first time all night, fed a perfect pass into the path of Williams and his shot across Jordan Pickford was unerring and tucked just inside the left-hand post.
The Spaniards had come back out of the dressing room without their injured midfield metronome Rodri.
But the English had left far more inside – their organisation, their concentration, their shape, their composure.
Within 90 seconds, it really should have been two, Williams finding Olmo inside the box for a shot on the half-turn that he dragged wide with Pickford helpless.
On 55, Alvaro Morata was in behind a square back four, drawing Pickford for a shot Stones hacked away as it rolled goalwards, then the twinkle-tied Williams found space to fire inches side from 25 yards.
Southgate’s side had been behind plenty times before, but they’d never been quite as over-run as this – and before the hour, he’d responded to chants from the stands by hooking listless skipper Harry Kane and throwing on semi-final hero Olly Watkins.
He was barely on before Spain were flying again, Williams and Morata setting Yamal free for a low left-footed curler that Pickford did brilliantly to push for a corner with a strong right paw.
But then, out of nowhere, England were level.
They broke down to the right with Bukayo Saka, who slipped a pass inside to Jude Bellingham for an instant lay-off back into the path of Chelsea 22-year-old Palmer.
He didn’t look up. He didn’t take a touch.
He just stroked it, left-footed, from 25 yards low to keeper Unai Simon’s right and brought this final kicking and screaming to life.
Now you were thinking: They couldn’t, could they?
They won’t, will they?
For the next five, ten minutes, they genuinely believed they could.
Until, with nine to go, a rat-a-tat of passes found Oyarzabal in space to ping a first-ball wide to Marc Cucurella and keep running into the box for the return, which he slid in at Pickford’s near post.
Even then, there was a moment; a VAR moment, as the goal was checked for offside.
The knee of Stones was inches ahead of the toe of Oyarzabal.
The goal stood.
The trophy was won.
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Even if they Olmo had kittens before it was finally in their hands.
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