England 2-0 Germany. For all the bluster in the enmity, all the international affection hiding among the jeers and jabs, this is a result that will take some time to sink in. Matches between England and Germany have historical resonance, England’s successes in 1966 and 2000 offering little comfort to a nation scarred by the losses of yesterday.
This UEFA EURO 2020 Last 16 tie at Wembley was a deceptively comfortable affair, in hindsight, and a vindication for German football pundits who’ve voiced their concerns about their national team this summer. England took 75 minutes to score but their defence remains unbreached thus far. But for one already iconic close shave, it rarely felt likely.
At the World Cup in Russia three years ago, England’s progress was played down because of their supposedly easy route to the semi-final. England supporters, though, know that major tournament progress or otherwise is a gauntlet of psychological hurdles built up through decades of history. It’s easy to expect them to win a penalty shoot-out or beat Sweden after the fact. In truth, the road to the last four was paved with dread.
Beating Germany in a summer tournament was the highest hurdle of all. Victory in the group stage of UEFA EURO 2000 helped to send the DFB and German football into a fruitful period of reflection and reconstruction, and defeating West Germany in 1966 snared the greatest trinket of all, but the raw and simple reality is that England do not beat Germany when it counts.
The shadow of 1990 and 1996 was cast long over this tie, not least because of England manager Gareth Southgate’s role in the latter. Yet the significance of this win extends beyond the opposition. England had only won one European Championships knock-out match before this, and that was at home and on penalties after a game in which Spain were robbed.
Southgate’s England did something England don’t do, yet again, and it’s an encouraging sign that the competition is going to plan. To overcome all these simmering matters of the mind with England doubted and yet to fire was impressive, exciting and enlightening all at once.
This was the day the tournament opened up for England, not because of some strange arrogance about the opposition to come, but because we are in uncharted territory. The familiar stumbling block has been dealt with and everything from here on in is new and unhindered by history.
The most thrilling piece of all is the idea that England’s trajectory to this point might be more well timed than faltering. Didier Deschamps spoke of France’s conditioning for EURO 2020, which was shaped with the aim of hitting their stride not in the first game of the competition, but the fourth. It didn’t work out for them, but it’s exactly what England have done, by design or good fortune, and they couldn’t ask to be in a better position as the quarter-final against Ukraine approaches.
England needed a break-out EURO 2020 performance and it needed to be this one. It was. The maligned 3-4-3 formation returned, with Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips in central midfield and supporters concerned that they would play deep and the wing backs would do the same, but Southgate’s selection – a deft ploy to match Germany tactically – was right on the money.
Germany started fastest. In the early minutes England’s wing backs were indeed pinned back. Rice and Phillips, though, were both operating ten yards higher than they did against Scotland, willing to press Germany’s back three.
The home team were soon in charge and proved to have plenty of ambition and aggression. Raheem Sterling immediately looked full of confidence with two goals already on his tournament tally, and Bukayo Saka again started well.
England remained defensively sturdy and that is the stuff of successful tournament football, as long as it’s matched by attacking intent when it matters. England made it matter with two unanswered goals in the last quarter of an hour.
The first was a Sterling masterpiece. He was involved forty yards from goal to drive the move, which culminated in a superb sequence around the corner of the German penalty area. Harry Kane shunted the ball left for substitute Jack Grealish, whose pass into the channel was perfectly weighted for left wing back Luke Shaw to slide in a low cross first time. Sterling was the recipient and tapped home to finish what he started.
Ten minutes later Shaw and Grealish reversed roles. Shaw fed Grealish in the left channel and the Aston Villa captain elected not to take on a left-footed shot when he spotted Kane’s dart into the six-yard box. He fired in the type of cross Ollie Watkins fed off all season and Kane angled the header past Manuel Neuer to put the game beyond Germany and expedite Joachim Loew’s leaving drinks.
In between England’s goals there was a moment of horror. Scorer Sterling left a defensive pass short and it was intercepted by Kai Havertz. The Chelsea midfielder played Thomas Mueller through on goal and the world expected the ball to nestle in the bottom corner. Sterling, relieved, dropped to his knees. The inevitable equaliser had, somehow, not materialised. Mueller had missed.
Havertz was Germany’s most threatening player in a relatively toothless performance. England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford was twice called into action before Mueller’s miss, most notably to turn over Havertz’s rasping drive.
For most of the first 75 minutes, though, only England seemed likely to score. Apart from Mueller’s breakaway attempt they never felt under threat at 1-0 either – such comfort in a fixture of this magnitude was disconcerting but worth celebrating. England finally arrived at EURO 2020 at the best possible moment.
And celebrate they did, but it was quickly back to business with confidence high and a quarter-final against Ukraine next on the docket. Germany dispatched, there’s no doubt a little bit of that historical arrogance is crept into the mindset of casual fans who’ve seen four England matches this summer but only one of Czech Republic and nothing of Denmark or Ukraine.
But the rest of us – Southgate and his players included – take nothing for granted. Ukraine will make sure of that in Rome on Saturday, and if England’s performance is even slightly below their best they’ll be beaten. Fortunately, this England team doesn’t make a habit of underestimating its opposition.
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Chris Nee
@SphinxFtbl