England

After being cleared through the arrivals lounge, players are being led individually to a fleet of waiting vehicles.

Eberechi Eze is one of the first through, wheeling his suitcase to a luxury black car, while Harry Kane walks out carrying a large bag.

Presumably the England captain will spend a while back in the UK or on holiday before heading back to Germany to hook up with his Bayern Munich team-mates for pre-season training.

Image source, PA Media

England

There is plenty of high-fives and back slapping as vice-captain Kyle Walker leads Manchester City team-mates John Stones and Phil Foden off the plane, while Kieran Trippier sports some rose-tinted shades as he follows them down the steps.

Jude Bellingham and Trent Alexander-Arnold follow.

England

Anthony Gordon is the first player off the plane, a little ahead of remaining squad members, eventually coming down the steps in dribs and drabs.

As you can imagine, there are quite a few stern faces. It could have been oh so different, with Harry Kane looking down as the captain makes his way into the terminal.

England

Here comes Gareth Southgate and assistant Steve Holland, no fanfare to speak of as they casually make their way down the stairs, followed by other members of the backroom team.

The players are waiting behind.

England

There is a brief delay as management and players ready themselves before disembarking.

It remains a very grey day at Stansted but the rain looks to have died off.

Who will be first to show their faces? You would imagine England captain Harry Kane and manager Gareth Southgate will lead the other players off together.

England

It's interesting that the plane carrying the England team home is very, well, plain.

It has no external markings, nothing to suggest the important cargo it is carrying.

They have finished taxiing now and the stairs are being moved into position.

Image source, Reuters

England

While we waited for images to materialise of the England team landing at Stansted, the BBC News stream at the top of this page was showing images from Madrid of Spain fans celebrating.

They became the first European nation to win seven matches at an international tournament.

Plenty of reasons to celebrate.

Meanwhile, the plane has now landed at a very rainy Stansted Airport - a marked difference to those images from Madrid.

England

Just to add to the mood, it is raining at Stansted Airport...that fine rain that soaks you through.

BBC reporter Ellie Price is at the airport, brolly in hand, to describe the scene as the flight carrying the England players lands and they make their way home.

Click the play icon at the top of the page to follow England's return home via a special BBC News stream.

Chris Collinson
BBC football statistician

One thing potentially worth mentioning in defence of England is they obviously played tougher opponents as they progressed, which would understandably bring their stats down (not every team had to face Spain).

However, this sounds like a poor excuse when you consider that Spain had to play Germany and France on the way to the final and their stats are excellent.

Here is Spain's stats profile compared to England's, with them arguably having the best attack and fifth-best defence at the tournament as they dominated the ball and suffocated the opposition.

England

The England players, management and staff will shortly be landing at Stansted Airport after returning home from Germany, where they finished runners-up to Spain at Euro 2024.

You can watch their welcome home via a stream at the top of this page, just click on the 'Watch Live' icon.

Image source, Reuters

Kyle Walker, Declan Rice and John Stones all played every single minute of Euro 2024 for England.

However, it was the subs bench that proved the difference-maker throughout the tournament.

Cole Palmer scored off the bench in the final, Ollie Watkins bagged a late winner in the semi-final and Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ivan Toney delivered clinical penalties in the quarter-final victory.

Telling contributions, but what fringe players deserved more time to shine?

Alexander-Arnold - 134 minutes

Watkins - 38 minutes

Toney - 42 minutes

Palmer - 125 minutes

Adam Wharton - 0 minutes

Anthony Gordon - 4 minutes

Eberechi Eze - 99 minutes

Image source, Getty Images

Chris Collinson
BBC football statistician

England were one of the worst attacking sides at Euro 2024, in terms of both shot quantity and quality.

• Only five teams shot less often than England.
• Only Scotland, Serbia and Slovenia had a worst attack in terms of expected goals.
• Discounting penalties, only Scotland created worse-quality chances on average.
• While it seems England were fairly average finishers in terms of shot conversion rate, they actually made a lot of their chances given the poor quality of them – finishing wasn't the problem *non-penalty shot quality of 0.071 xG per shot means an average side would expect to score 7.1% of those shots – England's players scored 9.3% of their non-penalty shots (10.5% of shots overall, including Kane's penalty against the Netherlands)*.

Chris Collinson
BBC football statistician

If there's one stat that best assesses a team's overall performance, it's non-penalty expected goal difference.

This effectively looks at whether teams are doing the basics right of creating lots of good chances at one end and limiting their opponents to few, bad chances at the other (while removing the significant and inconsistent impact of penalties being awarded by capricious referees).

It’s basically assessing teams before form and luck come into play - like assessing the state of your actual body before you put on the stylish clothes and expensive aftershave! Not the be-all and end-all but a very good indicator of quality.

Spain were the best team at the tournament in terms of non-pen xGD, with Portugal, Germany and France making up the top four (all on the opposite side of the draw from England).

England were ranked 16th in terms of non-pen xGD, around the same level as fellow Euro 2020 finalists Italy, although England had players who could produce individual moments of brilliance.

Do England deserve credit for beating supposedly ‘better’ teams like Switzerland and the Netherlands? Absolutely…but the gulf in performance was too big to overcome when it came to facing a team like Spain.

Were England actually worse than the likes of Slovakia and Hungary overall? Not really, because they had superior players who made more of their opportunities.

No-one can ever question this England side's attitude or commitment – like their togetherness, they have shown they have all of that in abundance – but they have not been able to play the right kind of football for most of this tournament.

We have seen glimpses of it, like in the first 30 minutes of the opening game against Serbia, or a similar spell in the first half of the semi-final against the Netherlands, but we have not really seen enough in any of the seven games we have played in Germany.

Finding a way to win is an impressive trait for any team to have, but it was not enough to take us to the trophy and of course that hurts.

We had a better squad than three years ago and, because of the expectation Gareth’s success has put on this England team, we expect them to win now.

Read Alan Shearer's take here.

Image source, Getty Images

Guillem Balague
Spanish football journalist on BBC Radio 5 Live

Harry Kane wasn't a great threat, but he was necessary because quite clearly the centre-backs looked relieved when he went off. Even though he wasn’t given 90 minutes of constant threat, you have to keep your eyes open when he's on the pitch.

Same as Jude Bellingham, we he playing well? No, but things might happen with him at any time.

Image source, Getty Images

Guillem Balague
Spanish football journalist on BBC Radio 5 Live

England where actually playing better than Spain in the first half, we couldn't beat England's full-backs, we just didn't know what to do. I remember saying at half time - 'if we beat the full-backs, just once, then something is going to happen' and it did happen, it was the goal. After that it was fantastic football.

After it went to 1-1, Spain didn't hold back, especially with Rodri being out. They could have sat back, played for extra time, but they went for it. It represents what has happened in the whole tournament.

A band of brothers, who worked really hard for each other, a team that's versatile and it was a team that adapted to everything that the game required. Quite clearly, England where looking for a moment of brilliance, it came. But after that Spain kept going.

Simon Stone
BBC Sport

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy was speaking on BBC Radio Five Live earlier today.

She was slightly croaky after not returning from Berlin until 04:00 BST, but her message was clear; the new Government is committed to the football regulator and is also willing to get involved over talks around a 'new deal' for funding between the top flight and the English Football League.

"I can't pre-empt what is going to be in the King's Speech but it (football regulator) is a top priority," she said.

"The Premier League is one of our greatest exports but players are drawn from clubs and communities.

"We want to enable football to come to an agreement about fair financial flow; we are not being heavy handed, it is light touch from the Government, but we want to make sure they are enabled and incentivised to do that."