Kieran Trippier rejects Gareth Southgate's 'excuse' for England performances at Euro 2024

Kieran Trippier has rejected Gareth Southgate’s assessment of why England lost the Euro 2024 final to Spain.

On Sunday England fell to a 2-1 defeat to La Roja in the European Championship final in Berlin, a result which means the Three Lions have become the first-ever nation to lose consecutive Euro finals.

After Sunday’s defeat, Southgate admitted that some of his players were "a little bit short of their physical peak" during the tournament.

Yet Trippier, who started six of England’s seven games at left-back, said their physical woes were not an excuse for their loss.

"The team that we’ve got is fit," said Trippier. "If you see the running stats, I think we’re probably the highest in the whole tournament. So that’s not an excuse.

“They [Spain] get the second goal and it’s always difficult when you’re chasing the game against a team like Spain.

"Football is all about fine margins. It’s one of those where the lads gave everything."

However, Trippier, who was appearing at his fourth major tournament for his country, insisted that was cause for optimism for the future.

The likes of Cole Palmer, who scored in the final, Kobbie Mainoo and Marc Guehi all impressed in their first major tournaments for the senior side.

“They will have learned a great deal from his tournament,” added Trippier about the inexperienced players in Southgate's ranks.

Trippier insisted England being tired was not an excuse for their Euro final defeat (Getty)

“The young players stepped up in big moments for us. They can learn a lot from this. It will make them grow."

Jude Bellingham also insisted that England can grow from their experience in Germany.

“We all wanted nothing more than to make history and to make the people of England proud and we didn’t quite deliver,” he said.

“There are reasons for that and I’m sure as a team going forward we will analyse it. It’s a young group still and it’s really disappointing because at some point we do have to deliver but there are experiences we can take from this tournament.

“If you look at it negatively nothing will ever change so it is important we pick out the positives and the negatives together and find a way to one day get England over the line.

“I came here to win. We came here to win. There are experiences that we can take into the next one so I suppose that is some solace but you see those moments as important had we won the trophy. We will look individually and as a team how it went and bounce back.”