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England 2 Germany 0
The story spread throughout this match, no matter how fervently the English players had previously denied it. The English victory by 2-0 prevailed the ghosts of all those past defeats for Germany – in 1970, 1990, 1996 and 2010. Everyone at Wembley heard it, presumably including English coach Gareth Southgate, the failed penalty at London Stadium in 1996 had driven England out.
In the final minutes on Tuesday, with two goals in England, the 40,000 allowed at Wembley broke the “Three Lions”, the anthem of England’s “30 Years of Wounded”, mostly inflicted by Germany.
This was the first knockout match England won in the European Championship without the help of a penalty shootout since 1968. But it is a new type of England team, matured by their career. in the semifinals of the 2018 World Cup, more professional, more organized and more nervous than their predecessors.
Football is a game of mistakes and will generally win a team that does as few as England this evening.
The pass was barely missed, there were almost no blind games, and the positioning was expert, with wide England players cutting supply lines to the dreaded German sides. Jordan Pickford was perfectly placed to take advantage of the play, but unfortunately, he was as surprised as anyone and couldn’t finish for FC. The cliché behind England’s big games is that they “fought like lions,” but on Tuesday they worked harder as if they were computer-controlled. After four games, they have yet to concede a goal.
It was not entertaining. The prudent Southgate threw three central defenders even though Germany played most of the match with only one forward forward, Timo Werner. This left England with too many staff in the back and dwindling in the middle of the field. With no big pins on the team, the advances were laborious and rarely surprised the Germans.
Undoubtedly, this helps explain why English captain Harry Kane, deadly for Tottenham Hotspur this season, spent most of the game prolonging his agonizing Euro 2020. Raheem Sterling and Bukayo Saka were much brighter, but during some periods England achieved the unlikely feat of keeping Wembley quiet during a play-off match against Germany.
According to the old tradition of England, ignoring their creative players, several of them had started on the bench, but it was generated so little that in the 68th minute Jack Grealish was sent by Saka. Kane was allowed to stay out, apparently out of respect for his seniority. Seven minutes later, the switch paid off. Sterling started a play that went through Kane and Grealish to Luke Shaw, who made a low cross that Sterling took advantage of from six yards out, the third goal of the tournament and England.
Up until that point Kane had been so poor that it was starting to look like a case of identity theft. Perhaps he had been weighed down by the stress of being the biggest name in England facing the ritual elimination of Germany, because after the first goal he came to life, moving much more and passing sweetly. Four minutes into the time he got his redemption: Shaw intercepted in the middle of the field and fed Grealish, who hit a cross at an awkward height that Kane leaned over to head home.
This aging German team – with its coach, Joachim Löw, bent over after 15 years and four world champions since 2014 on the field – has come to an end. Then England’s players stayed on the pitch as fans produced the liveliest atmosphere most people will have experienced since the pandemic began. “I just thought it was a bright afternoon,” Southgate told the BBC.
Central defender Harry Maguire, named the official “star of the match”, said: “It’s been a difficult couple of years for everyone in this country, so putting smiles on your face again is enjoying a great moment “.
England are now in the easiest half of the draw, heading to the quarter-finals in Rome on Saturday, with Kane possibly freed from his demons and with the semi-finals and the final on the pitch at Wembley. Anyone unfamiliar with these “30 years of wounds” (which have since reached 55) might be tempted to ask: what could go wrong?
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