Thank you very much for joining me throughout the day.
Stay warm by reading the Power Rankings.
Down at the Emirates.
Keep up to date with the scorers.
Zinchenko will come up against Manchester City teammate Raheem Sterling, who has three goals in the competition already.
“Raheem is in great shape,” Zinchenko said. “He is the player who makes a difference on the field. Of course, we should pay attention to it and try to restrain it.”
Ukraine are through to just their second-ever major tournament quarter-final, having lost at this stage to Italy in the 2006 World Cup.
“We can celebrate the victory because we are writing history,” Zinchenko added. “The whole country deserved such a result.
“The team also deserved it – the coaching staff, which chose the tactics and made a plan for the game, and the players who put it into practice.
“But from (Wednesday) we need to think about the next opponent England.
“This team demonstrates excellent football at the tournament and is generally considered one of the best national teams in the world.
“We will do everything in our power to move on to the next stage.”
Updated
Ukraine are up for the challenge of beating England, according to Oleksandr Zinchenko. The two nations meet in Rome on Saturday and the underdogs will not arrive fearful.
“I watched almost all of their matches at the Euros except for (Germany),” he said. “I know many players of the team personally thanks to the matches in the Premier League.
“It is very difficult to score for this team, it is a great team with a fantastic selection of performers.
“If you look at their bench, there are players worth, probably, like three national teams of Ukraine.
“But this should not frighten us, but rather motivate us. I have already felt that everything in this life is real. I will personally do my best to achieve the result in the next game.”
Classic Keysy ...
— Adam Hurrey (@FootballCliches) June 30, 2021
“It’s a disgrace … all this mixed messaging,” said Neil Marsland, who lives in Rome. “There is no clear guidance – are there any tickets available and, if so, how do we get them? Maybe it will get resolved as one would have thought there would be a number of tickets available for English residents in Italy.”
The biggest battle of the tournament: BBC v ITV.
In other news ...
Steven Caulker has joined Fenerbahce.
Alanyaspor'a ve Alanyaspor taraftarına her şey için çok teşekkür ederim. Bugüne kadar her daim arkamda oldunuz ve bana ailenizden birisi gibi hissettirdiniz. Bana şans verdiniz. Benim için yaptıklarınızı asla unutmayacağım.
— Steven Caulker (@StevenCaulker44) June 30, 2021
Size başarılar diliyorum 💚🧡 pic.twitter.com/GI7OUKDKKP
Granit Xhaka has been excellent throughout this tournament, it has to be said. It has also been linked with an exit from Arsenal, which would typical that they sell a player when he finally realises how to be good.
1,924 – Granit Xhaka has completed 181 forward passes at EURO 2020, accounting for a total progressive distance of 1,924 metres; the most of any midfielder remaining in the competition. Director. #SUI #EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/QQ5WLgT5sw
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 30, 2021
Lovely stuff ...
Love this, @JHenderson ❤️pic.twitter.com/Dr6qfkjQOL
— England (@England) June 30, 2021
Oooof!
Andriy Shevchenko is currently the head coach of Ukraine. He is remembered by many in England for an underwhelming spell at Chelsea. It should be pointed out, however, that he was a ruddy good striker.
Happier times for the French national team ...
#OnThisDay in 2018, @BenPavard28 scored the Goal of the 2018 @FIFAWorldCup for #FRA against Argentina. Worldie. pic.twitter.com/1h7lzJBJqH
— World Soccer (@WorldSoccerMag) June 30, 2021
John Dalby emails: “When booking our wedding, our priest had a strange request - could we move the ceremony an hour earlier? He was an Arsenal season ticket holder and they were due to be at home against West Ham on our special day. My wife, to whom this day was apparently quite important, refused. I, being a Spurs fan, was more than happy for him to miss out. On the day itself, my wife then turned up 20 mins late, although she insists this wasn’t to ensure he missed the match.”
Zinchenko was fantastic for Ukraine last night. Get to know him a bit more.
Thanks John. What an half an hour that was for all concerned. I did the bins and went into the loft.
It falls to me to return the reins back to Will Unwin.
Weather report with Joe Sampson: “Regarding the temperature in Rome favouring England on Friday: A quick check on Google shows that the current temperature in Rome is 30ºC, almost identical to the 29ºC in Kiev. It seems that balmy London is basking in temperatures around 17ºC. I’m not sure the subzero winter temperatures in the Ukraine will have a great bearing on a game being played in July.”
Marcus Christenson hits the chalkboards and abacus to gauge Saturday night in Rome.
Ukraine have outscored England by six goals to four so far this tournament although there will now be a big question mark over Andriy Yarmolenko’s fitness after a gruelling game against the Swedes. The captain seemed to be limping from the 60th minute onwards but somehow lasted until the end of the first half of extra time.
Broadcast news from Suzanne Wrack.
The global sports platform Dazn has been awarded the newly centralised rights for the group stage onwards and has entered into a partnership with YouTube to ensure the competition will be freely available to watch around the world, excluding the Middle East, North Africa and China, where they have rights to clips and highlights, for the first time.
John Brewin is going to return while I go to put out the recycling. What a treat for both of us.
PA are providing what we’ve all been waiting for ... an expat in Italy.
Mary Handley, who has lived in Italy for more than 40 years, told the PA news agency there could be “quite an army” of expats at the match, if clarity is provided by the authorities on how to go about it.
“I’ve been trying all morning to navigate the systems there and not got anywhere to be quite honest, it’s really heavy-duty,” Handley, originally from Halifax in West Yorkshire, said.
“There’s a big network of English residents in Italy and you can travel (within Italy) pretty easily,” the 68-year-old, who lives 30 miles outside of Rome, added.
“I think the expats will respond to this, especially as the expat community tends to be, how can I put this, in the older bracket, so we probably all have our Italian vaccinations and we can get into the stadium without jumping through any more hoops.
“I would love to go. I’ve already got my T-shirt and my red cross on my white mask. I’m going to show up there, even if I have to do it on my own.”
Handley believes the reported estimate of 30,000 British expats in Italy “seems low” to her and added: “I do think there’s quite an army out there that might show up. If I can do it, I’m ready to do it, absolutely. We just need the authorities to help us out.”
BIG NEWS COMING OUT OF PORTUGAL ...
Get to know the Ukraine team ...
Down below the line, you2cs says: “England are the favourites against Ukraine of course. The fact that after the Ukraine game the next one is played at Wembley is an extra motivation for the England team to get closer to the final. That said, heat will probably affect more Ukraine than England. In winter the temperatures in Ukraine are often below freezing which you don’t get that in England. Cold yes, but not below freezing.
“If Ukraine doesn’t click and give all they’ve got, then England will win 2-0.”
“In 2004, my friends were hurriedly tapping their watches at me as I started the best man speech I was giving,” says Rodney Fernandes. “A speech that was taking place just before half time of England-Portugal. In hindsight probably for the best. Although neither I, nor any other of his football fan friends, have forgiven my best friend for his errant scheduling of his wedding.”
Over in Leicester ...
Dean Kinsella emails regarding weddings knacking your football viewing. “We celebrated our wedding in a marquee in our garden in the west of Ireland,” says Dean. “It was a lovely do with lots of gorgeous food and rakes of live music. Unfortunately the marquee remained largely empty during the afternoon while about 50 people (well alright then, men) crammed into our wee living room to watch Ireland beat the Netherlands and Michael Owens thrash Germany.”
This is from our friends over at the politics blog, who have had to endure a lot of football puns in PMQs today. Sadly, it is not a cheery read.
Young men getting together to watch Euro 2020 matches was a significant factor in the steep rise in Covid cases in Scotland, with nearly 2000 football-related cases emerging from Test and Protect data, and two-thirds of those reporting they had travelled to London to watch the Scotland-England game.
Public Health Scotland revealed that 1991 people with a positive test had attended one or more Euro 2020 events during their infection period i.e. a time in which they may have unknowingly transmitted their infection to others.
Cases were tagged because they attended either a Euro 2020 organised event, like a match at Hampden or Wembley Stadium or the Fanzone at Glasgow Green, or an informal gathering, like a pub or a house party to watch a match.
Nearly three quarters of these cases were between 20 and 39 years of age and nine of every ten cases were male. Nearly two thirds of cases reported travelling to London for a Euro 2020 event, including 397 people who attended the 18 June Scotland vs England match at Wembley Stadium. Attendance at hospitality venues was the most frequently reported tag, representing 34% of all tags.
Yesterday first minister Nicola Sturgeon was asked why it is that rates have risen so steeply in Scotland in recent weeks, in comparison to the rest of the UK, she pointed out that the Delta variant was first seeded into Glasgow, the country’s biggest city, and so was able to spread more quickly than elsewhere in the UK. She also reminded viewers that Scotland has lower population immunity because fewer people had the virus in earlier waves, thus there is a larger ‘susceptible population’.
With 80% of new cases amongst the under 44s and just 2% in the over 65s, older people continue to be worst affected by the virus. Latest data from the National Records of Scotland there were 17 deaths where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate over the last week, an increase of four on the previous week, but those deaths were all in the over 65 age group.
The Ukrainian cabinet wore national team football shirts during their meeting on Wednesday. That should get the nation in the mood.
Will he or won’t he? The only reason I’d want England to win the Euros would be to get Barry singing.
If #ENG win #Euro2020 will @bglendenning sing Football's Coming Home? 'Erm, no' https://t.co/WG2V2JOauo pic.twitter.com/qTKKNVH2wU
— Guardian sport (@guardian_sport) June 30, 2021
Will the Ukrainians be tired on Saturday?
121 - Timed at 120:37, Artem Dovbyk has scored the second-latest goal in European Championship history, behind Semih Sentürk v Croatia in 2008 (121:01), and the latest match-winning strike in the competition, overtaking Michel Platini v Portugal in 1984 (118:53). Gasp. #EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/LAXcVAAvxw
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 29, 2021
Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon says he was “tortured” by his mistake which gifted Croatia a goal in their last-16 clash. The Athletic Bilbao man failed to control a simple backpass from Pedri, allowing it to go past his foot and into the back of the net.
Simon redeemed himself with some fine saves as Spain went on to progress in extra-time.
“It has tortured me a little. Sincerely, I’ve seen it six or seven times and I can’t find an explanation, I just controlled it badly,” Simon told a news conference. “People asked if the sun was in my eyes but it wasn’t, I had lots of space to control the ball, I wanted to play out from the back but my feet stopped dead. I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to control the ball in my life and the ball had never gone in before. It’s an accident but something that can be redeemed very easily.”
Ukrainian forward Artem Besedin is out for the rest of Euro 2020 with a knee injury from a tackle by Sweden’s Marcus Danielson, a team coach said on Wednesday.
Danielson was sent off after his attempt to track down a pass resulted in a studs-up challenge against Besedin during Ukraine’s 2-1 defeat of Sweden in their last-16 knockout game. Besedin is returning to Ukraine for tests, said assistant coach Oleksandr Shovkovskiy.
“We are no longer able to count on Artem Besedin in our next matches,” Shovkovskiy wrote on Facebook. “He is forced to leave the team and return to Kyiv for a full examination.”
Ukraine face England in Rome in the quarter-finals on Saturday. To show support, all Ukrainian ministers wore the team’s yellow-and-blue jerseys in cabinet on Wednesday.
It’s Fiver time!
I am at a wedding on Saturday, which begs the question ... when has an event got in the way of watching football?
Gareth Southgate had to very quickly turn his attention to Saturday’s clash with Ukraine after beating Germany. He thinks England have a great chance of making history in this tournament.
“These players keep writing history and they’ve got the chance again. We’ve only ever been to one European Championship semi-final so, again, they’ve got the chance to do something really special and we’ve got to make sure we give ourselves the very best chance of doing that.”
Spirits are high in the England camp.
Peter Kingsnorth provides analysis of my team selection (see 11.29): “With regards to the team against ukraine you’ve got to remember that Phillips, Rice, Foden and Maguire have received yellow cards, if they get one against Ukraine they can’t play in the semi final (if England get there).
|For that reason I can’t see Foden playing. I’m guessing Gareth will have Henderson instead of either Phillips or Rice (would you risk playing a semi final without both of them?).
“Mings for Maguire? Maguire is an important player but Mings did do really well when he played so worth another game?...Who’d be a manager, eh.”
My view is to just play your (my) best team to win the match and sort the issues out after. But I am not shouldering the expectations of a nation.
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Elsewhere in the world of football ...
Swansea City defender Connor Roberts is set to be out of action until the end of September after undergoing surgery on his groin. The Wales international suffered the issue during their Euro 2020 loss to Denmark.
The right-back has recently been linked with a move to Burnley, meaning his injury could scupper any potential deal in the short term.
In all likelihood, England will revert to a back four against Ukraine. The big question is ... what would your starting XI be?
Mine: Pickford, Trippier, Stones, Maguire, Shaw, Rice, Phillips, Grealish, Foden, Sterling, Kane.
It is a done deal for England.
46.9% - Following their win over Germany, England now have the best chance of all the quarter-finalists of reaching the #EURO2020 final, according to the Stats Perform prediction model. Home? #ENG pic.twitter.com/M0DPoUQcP7
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 30, 2021
Maybe we should just all sit back and enjoy the match highlights for a bit.
Fancy a trip to Rome? Well it ain’t gonna happen.
From PA:
Only expatriates are expected to attend Saturday’s match after members of England Supporters Travel Club (ESTC) were told by the Football Association that it would not take up its ticket allocation owing to travel restrictions between the UK and Italy.
A letter to ESTC members from the FA read: “Please be aware that, unfortunately, the FA will not be selling any tickets via the England Supporters Travel Club for this fixture given the travel restrictions in place across both countries, and as such are working with Uefa and the British embassy in Italy to facilitate as many ticket sales to English residents in Italy as possible.”
The letter said there would be a full update published on Wednesday.
The FA was entitled to an allocation of 2,560, equating to 16 per cent of the agreed capacity at the Stadio Olimpico of 16,000, but will not take this up, meaning those tickets will go on general sale.
Travellers from the UK must self-isolate on arrival in Italy and then take a rapid antigenic or molecular swab test for Covid-19 and test negative for release, meaning someone would need to have arrived on Monday in order to be cleared for Saturday.
Italy is on the UK Government’s amber list too, meaning anyone travelling to Rome from the UK would need to isolate for at least five days upon their return.
Italy know plenty about Inter striker Romelu Lukaku who they will face in the Euro 2020 quarter-finals. Considering Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne will be absent for Belgium, their No 9 could be even more important than usual.
“We know Lukaku well because we also face him in Serie A,” Italy and Napoli defender Giovanni Di Lorenzo told Uefa.com. “We know he is a great striker, he had a wonderful season with Inter. He is to be kept under observation, but Belgium have many strong players and it will be a great match. The further you go, the stronger teams you face, but the approach is always the same.”
My England man of the match yesterday was Kyle Walker. He’s been excellent all tournament and is incredible as the right centre-back when operating with three. He really has flourished in recent years to become incredibly consistent.
Something to cheer up the Germany supporters.
🇩🇪 Germany's EURO 1996 winner... 🏆
— UEFA EURO 2020 (@EURO2020) June 30, 2021
⚽️ Oliver Bierhoff#OTD | @DFB_Team_EN | #EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/teuCO5chyl
Reaction from Germany courtesy of Archie Rhind-Tutt.
EXPRESS (Köln)
— Archie Rhind-Tutt (@archiert1) June 30, 2021
“Bye-Bye Jogi”
“Dear Engländer, with a deserved win you got back your Wembley stadium from us and ended the great era of Joachim Löw. You had the guts that we didn’t. Good luck for the rest of the Euros. Your Krauts”
KRAUTS. WAHEY pic.twitter.com/8J3HPa6mQv
David Seaman reckons his old teammate Sir Gareth Southgate got his tactics absolutely spot on.
Seaman told Sky Sports News: “I think that is what it was designed to do – not let them impose on us and make sure that we do push them back and it did work.
“I remember watching the second half and I could see Luke Shaw on the halfway line, or even in the Germany half, when the ball was down our end. I was thinking, ‘This can’t be right’ – but it was dead right. Gareth had got it spot on.
“It was great to see they got that formation right straight away. It’s all positive going forward, going into the next game against Ukraine.
“Now we’re all asking questions, will he play three or four at the back – we’ll just say, ‘We don’t care, you know what you’re doing Gareth, do what you want’.”
It turns out having football on free-to-air television is a good idea, as a third of the country (or thereabouts) watched England’s win over Germany.
“England’s 2-0 victory over Germany in the last-16 stage of Euro 2020 attracted a peak TV audience of 20.6m and 80.1% of viewers available at that time,” the BBC say.
“Goals from Raheem Sterling and England captain Harry Kane produced a memorable evening at Wembley Stadium and also pulled in 3.5m live streams for the match across BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport combined.”
Good morning! What a night it was, as Ukraine finally got the better of Sweden in the most dramatic fashion. Shevchenko got his tactics right and the sending off certainly helped in extra-time. Whether they can do the same against England is up for debate.
Ok, I shall leave you in the most capable hands of Mr William Unwin, Gorton’s most favourite son after John Thaw, Roger Byrne and Nicky Butt.
Updated
Care for some Knowledge?
File under: “awkward”.
Per AP.
Dutch public broadcaster NPO has apologised for wrongly subtitling the German national anthem when it was played before the team’s European Championship match against England in London.
The NPO subtitling department’s Twitter account says “the wrong verse was accidentally shown” and has apologized to viewers who were offended by the error.
The verse beginning “Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles” was dropped in post-World War II Germany.
England beat Germany 2-0 on Tuesday to advance to the Euro 2020 quarter-finals.
Kai Havertz, speaking to BeIN Sports, has paid tribute to the departing Joachim Löw, who will be replaced by Hansi Flick, his former assistant, and refused to blame Thomas Müller’s miss for Germany’s exit.
It is very hard for us. I think for Germany he is the biggest manager of all time, the whole country is proud of him, the players are proud of him. The career for him is unbelievable and we are disappointed not to give him the best end but of course he is a great manager and a great person to all of us.
So it isn’t all about Thomas, it is about everybody, the whole team, I think we could have created more chances but we didn’t do that so it is very tough to take. England has a good squad, good players. We have them too so of course we were very disappointed to lose the game. We have to keep on going, it is hard to take for us.
Some potted Euro 2020 stats from PA Media
- There were 14 goals scored in the two last-16 games played on Monday - 3-3 draws first between Spain and Croatia and then France and Switzerland, with Spain scoring twice more in extra time. Switzerland saw off France in the current tournament’s first penalty shootout.
- That is the most goals on a day with so few games in any European Championship - indeed, the only higher total came in the four games on the final day of this year’s group stage when Spain again scored five, without reply against Slovakia, Sweden beat Poland 3-2 and the Portugal-France and Germany-Hungary fixtures both finished 2-2.
- Spain’s 5-3 win over Croatia was the second-highest scoring game ever in the tournament, behind only Yugoslavia’s 5-4 win over France in the semi-finals in 1960.
- Denmark previously made history with their 4-0 win over Wales, becoming the first team ever to score four goals in successive European Championship games - only for Spain to then go one better with back-to-back five-goal hauls.
- Portugal’s early elimination leaves Cristiano Ronaldo’s lead in the Golden Boot standings vulnerable to a host of players. Czech Republic striker Patrik Schick remains an active threat on the same total.
- England’s Raheem Sterling, Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku and Switzerland’s Haris Seferovic have three, with Robert Lewandowski and Georginio Wijnaldum eliminated with Poland and Holland respectively after also scoring three times.Antoine Griezmann won the Euro 2016 Golden Boot with six goals and fellow Frenchman Michel Platini scored a record nine in 1984, but Ronaldo’s total would have topped the charts at any other European Championship to date, albeit with fewer fixtures than this year.
- Euro 2020 has now seen as many own goals scored as all previous editions of the tournament added together.
- Unai Simon’s howler against Croatia saw his unfortunate Spain team-mate Pedri score the ninth own goal of the month - the first of the knockout phase, with the group-stage fun starting early when Italy scored the first goal of the tournament thanks to Turkey defender Merih Demiral.
- Pedri’s nightmare moment also provided a neat statistical symmetry - his back-pass was played from 49 yards out, the same distance as Patrick Schick’s wonder strike against Scotland in Group D, meaning matching records have been set for the longest goal and own goal in Euros history just a fortnight apart.
It seems a reporter on ITV’s Lorraine has fallen for the fake Jürgen Klopp who was, er, drinking with England fans at Wembley yesterday. Or was it actually the real Jürgen Klopp?
Oh mate… pic.twitter.com/f2RlLG0Kmu
— Nooruddean (@BeardedGenius) June 30, 2021
Not now, club football, though this one is going to be great fun.
Updated
Some words from England right-back/left-back Kieran Trippier, per PA Media.
Fearless. I thought we were fearless throughout the game, from start to finish. We knew we had to match them up man for man because they are a fantastic team and you have to give them a lot of respect.
It was just about being clinical, we knew they were going to press us and it was about how we managed the ball and I think we did it very well at times. At times, okay we were sloppy and they had a couple of counter-attacks and could have scored but it is about being clinical and we certainly were.
I thought everybody was unbelievable today. It shows how important subs are, you see Jack (Grealish) come on and get an assist and it just shows that everyone has to be be ready.
We had people who weren’t on the bench today but they are working tirelessly every single day in training and they deserve a lot of credit because it is a team effort. Everyone deserves credit for how we have handled ourselves across the tournament.
The soothing tones of the current holder of the title of Greatest Living Englishman.
Go on, drink these in.
Well, that’s put a dampener on things...and is probably for the best.
Jonathan Wilson went to Glasgow and back to write this report.
Shevchenko is an astute coach and has clearly improved Ukraine. This is a better, more proactive side than the one that limped out of the last European Championship without scoring a goal.
Not surprisingly, the German media has not taken defeat well, and the farewell to Jogi Löw is not especially fond.
Nick Ames had his eyes on Germany.
Faced with conservative opponents did Löw want Germany to attack or to sit in to avoid being countered? They never seemed committed to either and, once again, there was a sense of hoping for the best. Substitutes were thrown on against Hungary, just as old hands were coaxed out of exile in May, and everything turned. This time there was no stroke of luck, no joker to play and no rescue act from one of Löw’s stalwarts.
Jacob Steinberg grants Raheem Sterling his regal approval.
Jonathan Liew was at Wembley, too.
Germany are charging around like ghosts: airless, shapeless, bereft of life. Müller runs clean through on goal. Müller misses and drops to his knees. Fifty yards away Mats Hummels holds his head in his hands. This will almost certainly be the last tournament game for both of them. Minutes later Lothar Matthäus – wearing Shaw’s shirt – wins the ball in midfield, passes to Jack Grealish, who crosses for Kane. Two-nil; even Harry scored.
Sir Gareth Southgate is trying not to get *too* excited.
It’s a dangerous moment for us. The warmth of success, the feeling we only have to turn up to win the thing, we know it’s going to be an immense challenge. The players know that. They should feel confident from the way they’ve played. We came here with an intention and we’ve not achieved that yet.
Let’s go over last night’s piece. First, Barney Ronay’s verdict.
At the end, as the crowd basked and bounced in the seats it was hard to shake the feeling of people emerging from a fever dream into some strange new light. The last 18 months have been a gruelling, bruising alternative timeline. But it seems good things can also happen here too.
England will now travel to Rome to play Ukraine in the quarter finals on Saturday, a little giddy, but with a sheen of complete conviction. Before this game the players had promised to the slay the dragons of the past, to move on. And at times this did feel like something shifting. But not without a final heave.
It’s Ukraine up next, and they don’t seem too frightened by the prospect of taking on Gareth Southgate’s brave boys in Rome, as reported by Reuters from Glasgow, after Sweden were seen off in extra time.
Andriy Shevchenko:
England are a great team, they have a deep bench, an outstanding coaching staff and we are fully aware how tough this game is going to be. I saw all their three group matches, not today’s win over Germany because we had to prepare for our own game with Sweden. They are incredibly difficult to score against but their strength shouldn’t scare us.
It should motivate us because everything is possible in football as in life and we will play our hearts out to give our fans even more to cheer about.
Oleksandr Zinchenko:
Sterling is one of the best wingers in the world and right now he is making all the difference for England,” he said. We will need to be at our very best in defence to stop him but it will be difficult because he is on a roll.
It was difficult for me to adjust because a lot of criticism was poured on the whole team and on me in particular. Today, we have proved to the whole of Europe that we can achieve our goals. I would like to thank the fans, all those who managed to come to the stadium. This is a historic achievement and they should rejoice because moments like this are rare.
A typically calm reaction across the tabloids and broadsheets.
Michael Butler, Guardian Sport’s answer to Nancy Banks-Smith, watched the telly last night, and thoroughly enjoyed himself.
Updated
What’s the German word for schadenfreude?
The Germans were BIG MAD on that Thomas Muller miss 😮 pic.twitter.com/69KWivn0kh
— Roberto Rojas (@RobertoRojas97) June 29, 2021
Preamble
Shouldn’t you be at work? You probably have to be, and are perhaps feeling a tad dusty after last night’s fun. It’s coming home? England have to go to Rome first to face Ukraine. And where were the Germans? Well, frankly, who cares? Though some reaction to their exit is sure to surface as today is a day of reflection on the events of last night and a look ahead to this weekend’s quarter-finals.
So come one, come all, and let’s see how much fun we can have with the realisation that England have beaten Germany in a major tournament knockout game for the first time since 1966.
