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Sport

'It's coming home': England success sparks social media sensation

England's football team is enjoying its best World Cup in 28 years, and fans have started getting a little bit excited.

The nation's unofficial anthem Three Lions — with its incredibly catchy chorus "it's coming home" — has enjoyed a resurgence in recent weeks as the Harry Kane captained side has made the semi finals for just the third time.

The incredibly catchy lyrics come from the 1996 song by The Lightning Seeds along with comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner and was released to coincide with England's hosting of the European Championships.

The lyrics refer to the sport's return to the country in which it was invented and England's struggles to return to the glory days of its World Cup win in 1966.

Even if England does not win in Russia or even make the final, there is still plenty more ground for this song to cover in 2018.

It's coming home, it's coming

From royal bands performing at the Buckingham Palace guard change, fans shutting down streets in London, performers in hit West End musicals and organ players at 600-year-old cathedrals, the song seems to be everywhere.

Football's coming home

It's gone even further in the social media age, with clever people synchronising the song to key scenes in popular movies and television shows and sharing on the #ItsComingHome hashtag.

Three lions on the shirt

Even England's players have got in on the act, with Manchester United attacker Jesse Lingard sharing the contents of his phone conversation with his mother.

Manchester City's Kyle Walker probably sums up the rest of the readers who have made it this far down in the story.

Prince William is the president of the Football Association and has been keenly following the World Cup.

As for the song's creators?

As England asserted its dominance over Sweden in the quarter final, Baddiel is showing that he and Skinner "still believe".

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