After a month of group stage and knockout matches, the European Championship, also known as Euro 2024, has arrived at the title match. Here's what to know about the final and the finalists:

Which teams have made it to the final?

One is the best team in the tournament, on the brink potentially of a new era of success because of a teenage wonderkid, an outstanding midfield and a tweak in philosophy.

The other is a survivor, limping to the end with big moments, resilience and an oft-criticized coach who has another chance to end his country's long wait for a major men's title.

Dozens of bodies collected throughout a western neighborhood of Gaza City arrived at Al-Ahli Hospital on Friday morning as Palestinian emergency workers said they continued to unearth the dead throughout the neighborhood’s destroyed streets and buildings.

The hospital’s director, Fadel Naem, told The Associated Press that people both dead and wounded had been brought to the hospital from the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, transported in groups of up to 10, amid sniper fire and the buzz of helicopters.

Israel’s military said Friday that one of its soldiers was killed in combat in northern Israel as the country’s army and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah continue to trade cross-border fire.

33-year-old Israeli reservist Master sergeant Valeri Chefonov was killed in northern Israel Thursday in an explosive drone attack from Lebanon.

President Joe Biden acknowledged disappointments, missteps and frustrations with Israel’s hard-right government, but pointed to increased hopes now of a cease-fire to end the Israel-Hamas war devastating the lives of Gaza’s people.

Biden looked back Thursday over the course of his efforts in Israel’s war against Hamas during a much-watched press conference at the site of the just ended NATO summit.

The Israeli military has acknowledged a string of errors in its response to the deadly Hamas attacks last Oct. 7, including slow response times and disorganization, as it released the results of its first investigation into failures during the assault that triggered the war in Gaza.

The report focused on the border community of Be'eri, where over 100 people were killed and more than 30 others taken hostage by Hamas. It was among the hardest-hit communities in the early morning attack, and it was the scene of one of the highest-profile confrontations of Oct. 7 – a standoff in which militants held a group of hostages inside a home.

Israel will send a delegation to Cairo for further talks with mediators on a proposed deal with Hamas for a cease-fire and hostage release, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Thursday.

Israel has been pressing ahead with a fresh offensive across the north, south and center of the Gaza Strip in recent days, which could be aimed at increasing pressure on Gaza’s Hamas militant group during cease-fire negotiations.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Syrian President Bashar Assad have recently signaled that they are interested in restoring diplomatic ties that have been ruptured for more than a decade.

Erdogan has said that he will soon extend an invitation to Assad to meet for the first time since Ankara and Damascus broke off relations in 2011, as mass anti-government protests and a brutal crackdown by security forces in Syria spiraled into a still-ongoing civil war.

England is into another European Championship final after its latest dramatic, come-from-behind win that even took King Charles III on a roller coaster ride.

Ollie Watkins, who came on for captain Harry Kane in a bold call by England coach Gareth Southgate, scored in the first minute of stoppage time to earn England a 2-1 win over the Netherlands on Wednesday and a shot at Spain in the title match.

French referee François Letexier was picked by UEFA to handle the European Championship final between Spain and England.

At 35, he's one of the youngest referees to take charge of a major final. The game is on Sunday at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.