"Morata!"
"He shoots!!!"
"Three-nil!!!"
"Morata scores!!!"
"The players Hierro chose to start today, De Gea, Busquets, Alba, and Morata, have all done exactly what was asked of them. And now Morata has scored for Spain in the European Championship final!"
"Under this beautiful night sky, Leo races past defender after defender, beats Maguire in the air, and heads the ball across for Morata to score! Spain now lead by three!"
"Spain are three goals ahead in a European Championship final, and there are less than 30 minutes remaining!"
"Scholes, do you think England still have a chance?"
Scholes didn't answer.
Deep down, he felt England probably had no chance left, but he certainly wasn't going to declare them beaten before the final whistle.
"What if there's a miracle, Gullit? What if there is? What if England come back against Spain and lift the European Championship trophy?"
Stam said what Scholes was thinking.
Gullit simply smiled without answering.
Morata had originally planned to celebrate by pretending to polish Leo's boots.
But when he reached Leo, his foot slipped and he fell beside his leg.
So Morata simply wrapped his arms around Leo's calf and started patting it, showing off Leo's powerful calf muscles to the cameras as though telling everyone exactly why Leo could jump so high, even higher than an actual center back.
"Spanish fans can start thinking about celebrating back-to-back major international trophies already. Who would've imagined that the Spain squad people once thought was stuck between generations would suddenly produce so much talent again?"
"This year's Ballon d'Or has to be Lin's. The only question is whether winning the European Championship and claiming a third Ballon d'Or will send his market value soaring again. He's currently valued at 260 million, but I still don't think that reflects how good he really is!"
"I think it should rise to 280 million. Lin could even become the first player in football history to break the 300 million mark!"
"If his value really reaches 300 million, would anyone actually pay that much for Lin? I honestly don't know."
Seeing the live chat already discussing Leo's future market value, Gullit actually believed there would be clubs willing to pay 280 million euros.
"I think if Lin were valued at 280 million, considering his age and how consistently he's performed, quite a few clubs would be willing to pay it."
"At the very least, Paris Saint-Germain definitely would. How much did they spend to pry Neymar away back then?"
"Add a little more to that and you get Lin, a midfielder you can build an entire team around. I think that's excellent value!"
Gullit had never imagined there would come a day when he considered spending 280 million euros on a player to be excellent value.
But even if someone placed 280 million in cash right in front of Liverpool, the club wouldn't be tempted.
"Two hundred and eighty million sounds like a lot, but does anyone remember the contract Liverpool offered Lin not long ago? Based on the average value of the deal, Lin earns around 80 million euros a year."
"That means in three or four years, Lin himself could earn as much as his current market value. So is 280 million really that much for him?"
"Is 280 million really that much to Liverpool right now?"
"They'd rather give that money to Lin than sell him for it. Forget 280 million. Even if you had 680 million, you still couldn't buy another player like Lin!"
Ashley Cole completely agreed with Gullit's reasoning.
"First of all, I want to make one thing clear. No football trophy is ever won by one player alone."
"But I also want to say this. Spain's World Cup title, and all those Premier League and Champions League trophies Liverpool have won over the years..."
"Without Lin, I'm really not sure they would've won them!"
Southgate's lips were pressed together so tightly they were almost just a line.
Saka and Trippier still felt uneasy thinking back to the moment they had tried to chase Leo down.
He looked far more muscular than either of them.
Yet despite carrying that much muscle, he ran as though none of it slowed him down in the slightest.
There was power in his stride, but also a surprising degree of agility.
Saka had no idea how Leo managed it.
He only knew that, right now, trying to stop Leo felt almost impossible.
Rice stood with his hands on his hips.
Even when leading West Ham against opponents as strong as Manchester City, he had never felt pressure like this.
Because Manchester City didn't have Leo.
Morata was still thanking Leo over and over.
Only after scoring in a European Championship final could you truly understand how much one goal could elevate your status.
You didn't even need to say anything afterward.
You didn't need to do anything.
Fans would praise you endlessly simply because of that goal, almost as if everything that had gone wrong before had suddenly been erased.
And now, Morata was shining because of his goal in the final.
That one strike could completely wash away all the criticism surrounding his previous performances for Spain and permanently carve this moment into the minds of the supporters.
Years from now, when fans thought of Morata, the first thing they would remember would be the goal he scored to make it 3-0 in the European Championship final.
Not all the chances he had missed before.
With less than 30 minutes left in the final, England no longer cared about conceding another goal or making defensive mistakes.
Once play resumed, everyone pushed forward.
Trippier, Luke Shaw, and the rest all joined the attack.
Spain, meanwhile, switched to another tactical approach.
Hierro had already considered this possibility.
Once Spain took the lead, England were bound to throw everyone forward.
At that point, Spain could compress their shape, deliberately encouraging players like Luke Shaw and Trippier to push higher and higher in search of a goal.
That would create space for faster players like Leo and Olmo to use their speed on the counterattack.
It was the same approach Hierro's staff had devised when Spain won the World Cup.
Now they could use it again in the European Championship final.
After Morata's third goal, the broadcast cameras found Casillas and several other Spanish legends in the stands.
With Spain holding such a commanding lead, even those legends were clearly getting restless.
Every so often, they stood up to chat with the Spanish supporters around them.
Then a few moments later, they would squeeze toward the railing at the front, trying to get a closer look at the players on the pitch.
"Just look at how nervous those Spanish legends are."
"Spain are now only one step away from winning back-to-back major international titles!"