Cole Palmer is very unlikely to start for England against Spain in Sunday’s Euro 2024 final. He’s been on the bench for every game so far, and Gareth Southgate doesn’t even like to change things when they’re going badly, let alone when they’re going well.
But we’ll see Palmer off the bench as we have several times already in this tournament, and when he emerges, don’t be surprised to see the temperature in Berlin rising.
A year ago, Palmer wasn’t yet a Chelsea player, so you’ll have been forgiven for not remembering what happened in the Under-21s Euros final last summer. Palmer got the only goal of the game as England beat Spain, scoring a free kick which deflected off his own teammate and found the net. You can see it in the clip embedded here:
The winning goal 🏴🏆#U21EURO pic.twitter.com/ilxAD2AnaJ
— UEFA U19 EURO (@UEFAUnder21) July 10, 2023
Palmer fans the flames – as ever
The match was already bad-tempered, and Palmer stoked the flames by celebrating his goal in front of the Spanish bench. As Football Espana noted, players in the current Spain squad like Alex Baena were furious, and former Man City left back Sergio Gomez fumed after the game:
“[The celebration] surprised me. He didn’t want to apologise or anything like some of his other teammates,” he said. “I don’t know, I would have celebrated it in a different way and my teammates would have done it in a different way as well.”
Palmer’s attitude is something we love about him, but there’s no denying it can rub opposition players and funs up the wrong way (that’s partly why we like it). If he joins the party on Sunday, we could be in for some late fireworks.
Will Palmer be the one to double down on his celebrations, or will players like Baena get the chance for revenge? We can’t wait to find out…
