Euro 2020 Round of 16
Wembley Stadium, London
Admission: €50.00 (£42.92)
Programme: £10 (tournament programme)
Attendance: 41,973
So, today would bring down the curtain on a stop-start season in which I still managed to clock up 78 matches, despite pre-season starting as late at August, and football being wiped out throughout November and between Christmas and the end of March. Little doubt that I saved the best till last today, for my second visit to Wembley Stadium in three days.
When I booked my tickets for this fixture last Wednesday, I knew that England would be playing, scarcely believing my good fortune that I could secure a ticket for an England fixture, at a finals tournament, played at Wembley, but at that stage I did not know who the opposition would be. With Hungary surprisingly winning in Munich, it looked for a long time that they would provide the opposition, which in some ways would have been preferable in terms of arguably giving England the better chance of progression, but I really wanted a big occasion to look forward to, and with France also looking possible opponents at one stage, that would certainly have fitted the bill. But in the end, Germany equalised with six minutes remaining to set up their trip to Wembley for this fixture.
For the English at least, there is always a lot of emotion attached to this fixture, not least because, although honours have been split fairly evenly in games between the two nations including friendly fixtures, Germany have had by far the upper hand in competitive fixtures, and remain unbeaten in four knock-out tournament fixtures between the two nations since the 1966 World Cup Final. And there was a feeling that, whilst England probably had the better squad of players, the Germans will always the efficient winning mentality. So, it would be an intriguing encounter.
In the qualifying groups, both nations had almost identical records in winning their groups, winning seven and losing one, whilst in the Finals group stage, it was England who made efficient but unspectacular progress in winning the group without conceding a goal, beating Croatia 1-0, then drawing 0-0 with Scotland, before beating the Czech Republic 1-0, with all three games played at Wembley. Germany successfully negotiated the so-called group of death, losing their opening game against France 0-1, before putting in an impressive performance to beat Portugal 4-2, and then coming from behind twice to draw 2-2 against Hungary.
On a mild early evening but with rain falling ahead of kick-off, I had a seat offering an excellent, if somewhat distant view of the action, in the top tier behind one of the goals. The atmosphere was buzzing well ahead of kick-off, although sadly inevitably, the German National Anthem was almost drowned out in a chorus of booing, something that I personally find really distasteful and unnecessary. Any hopes that England play a more expansive and pressing game were very soon extinguished, as they continued to play a possession based game, frustrating to watch in its slow paced nature with players first and foremost looking to pass sideways and backwards. The counter argument that this approach can win games holds weight though, as Germany barely threatened, although they did have a couple of golden chances that they really should have put away. On 16 minutes, England had the first clear chance, when Raheem Sterling struck the ball from 25 yards out, which drew a flying, if relatively comfortable save from Manuel Neuer. Germany then had a couple of excellent chances in quick succession. On 31 minutes, the ball was flighted to the back post by Joshua Kimmich, and Robin Goses was well crowded out by a couple of defenders to prevent him from connecting to head home, whilst barely a minute later, Kai Havertz threaded an excellent low pass through the defence for Chelsea team mate Tino Werner to run onto, but his shot was well blocked by Jordan Pickford. But in added on time, England really should have opened the scoring. After Thomer Muller gave the ball away to Sterling from close to the half way line, Sterling kept running before he was challenged at the edge of the box, with the ball spilling out to Harry Kane on his own at the outer corner of the six yard box, but after taking a touch to a more central position, Mats Hummels just managed to hook the ball clear before Kane could strike at goal, which was virtually the last action of the half.
Into the second half and it was Germany who came closest to opening the scoring first, on 48 minutes, when a powerful half volley by Havertz forced Pickford into a smart tip over the bar. There was then major concern for England when Harry Kane went down injured, and at one stage looked like he might need to have been replaced, but happily he was indeed able to carry on after treatment. But on 75 minutes, finally the deadlock was broken with a well worked goal, Kane laying the ball off at the edge of the box for Jack Grealish, who fed Luke Shaw to the left of the penalty area, he passed the ball low towards the six yard box for Sterling to tap home, to send the Wembley crowd into wild celebrations. Germany really should have drawn level on 81 minutes. Sterling gave the ball away deep in his attacking half for Havertz to take possession, and feed the ball through into Muller's path to run clear of the defence and through for a one-on-one with Pickford, but amazingly for such a clinical and experienced striker, he struck the ball wide of Pickford's left hand post. And that miss was to prove costly, as England virtually made certain of a historic win when they scored their second on 86 minutes. The excellent Shaw dispossesed Serge Gnabry close to the half way line, strode towards the edge of the box before laying the ball for Grealish as he ran into the penalty area on the left hand side, and he crossed for Kane to stoop to head the ball home from 8 yards. The game was up for Germany now, and despite trying to push forward, England stood resolute and held on for a famous win, and could look forward to a quarter final against the winners of the Sweden - Ukraine tie, which turned out to be Ukraine. The stadium was absolutely buzzing, with the party atmosphere continuing well after the final whistle, with most of the crowd belting out renditions of "Three Lions" and "Sweet Caroline". After widespread bemusement at Gareth Southgate's perceived dull and negative football, particularly after a hard-to-watch goalless draw against Scotland, England can start to dare to dream now, with all of the traditional "big guns" on the other side of the draw, and if England manage to beat Ukraine ,a semi-final tie against Denmark or the Czech Republic will await. As for Germany, this was a disappointing end for their coach Joachim Low after 15 years in charge, although the squad does look one in transition.
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