‘I’ll be having a Guinness in memory of the last final’
In 1966, I was living in a two-bedroom council house in Huyton, which somehow managed to house six other people. I was seven and it had been the first season I’d attended the majority of Everton’s home matches with my dad. Three days before the final, my dad came up with a cunning plan to hire a massive 26-inch black and white TV and hold a party in our front room. The guests were my mum’s dad, my uncle Tommy, Augustus, my dad’s Italian best mate and the bloke next door Tom Morrissey.
I still remember the tension in the air, relieved by crates of Guinness and the ching of the bottles being opened and my mum making chip butties and popping her head around from the kitchen where she was in conference with my Irish grandmother and her shouts of “Come on Germany” being hushed by all the blokes poised and studying the set in avid concentration.
I remember little of the game … but I do remember the explosion of emotion at the final whistle and the whole street emptying out and dancing, singing and the party that ensued, My dad cuddling my Irish grandmother and her telling him to ‘behave himself’ and insisting she was happy for him through gritted teeth. Everyone at the party is dead now, time does that and the world is a very different place – it suddenly got bigger and faster and people don’t seem to have the respect for each other they had back then.
However, on Sunday, I’m going to forget all of that. As I sit with my Scottish wife, who’ll be Italian for the night I’m sure, I’ll be having a Guinness in memory of the last final and the menu for that night will be chip butties. Come on England! I feel absolutely elated. I just hope our fans behave themselves. Kevin Sparke, 62, warehouse worker, Knutsford, Cheshire
‘Being in Italy will make Sunday’s final an absolute killer’
I’ll be watching the final at our place with my best mate, Ian, and our Anglo-Italian sons, Alex and Sam. My wife has announced she will not be present and is going to her parents’ to see the game. My old England shirt from the 98 World Cup is a little snug, so I’ll be wearing my Umbro Bulldog Spirit T-shirt. I wore it at the quarter-final match at the Olimpico in Rome, so I’m hoping it’s got a bit of luck left in it. And flags, lots of St George flags around the house – though I would like to point out they only come out during football tournaments.
After the last horrible 18 months – during which I haven’t been able to make it back to the UK to see my parents – this has given us back the buzz. The Germany game sparked feelings we last felt in the World Cup in 2018. Our trip to Rome for the quarter-final was a magnificent road trip, crowned by a dazzling display on the pitch.
Being in Italy will make Sunday’s final an absolute killer. I’ve already had dozens of piss-taking texts from Italian friends and students, so I’m gritting my teeth for the match result. It really is the one final I could happily have lived without, but there we go. My son Alex is split right down the middle, poor kid. I’ve brought him up as a passionate Watford fan (my wife would have preferred he supported Inter) but even though we tend to follow England during tournaments, his mum will certainly play the guilt card on Sunday over who he supports. Martin Baxter, 50, English teacher, Bari, Italy
‘I am so proud of these young men, who have not only proved themselves as footballers, but good people’
It’s the middle of winter here, so we’ll be up at 4.45am (as we have all tournament, apart from the Germany game, when we had to be up at 1.45am) percolate the coffee, put a couple of logs on the fire and set up the streaming app. My husband, who is Australian, cannot take the tension, so he will come in and out watching bits of the game, and offering refreshments. My son and I will be gripping our seats, holding hands every time they get near the England goal or take a corner. When England score we’ll look at each other with a mixture of absolute joy and disbelief, before we jump and shout for joy and the send the cat running out of the room in disgust.
This tournament has taken its toll though: our eyelids are being held up by matchsticks at the moment. It’s been like our secret joy, as the rest of Australia continues on, unaware of the wonders happening on our telly in the middle of the night. I am so proud of these young men, who have not only proved themselves as footballers, but good people. Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling in particular shine out. England being in the final means so much more than football; it’s all about faith, really. Mandy Leeson, 59, mental health practitioner, Maldon, Australia
‘I can’t concentrate on anything else, it’s like being a kid again’
I’m absolutely ecstatic about the team making the final! I can’t concentrate on anything else, it’s like being a kid again. I’ll be over the moon if they win. I think we need to use our pace to get in behind Bonucci and Chielini and we have the players to do it. Regardless of the result though, I hope the players can use this as a springboard to reshape the national mood in spite of government propaganda politics. So happy for Sterling and genuinely excited that we finally have a black player absolutely bossing a tournament and being our star player.
The team taking the knee has been very important for a lot of people, myself included. The more successful the team has become, the less people seem to be booing it. I don’t think the division of opinion on the player’s stance has gone away, but rather the uncharted success of the team is taking the dialogue away from it. I still don’t believe it is an empty token gesture, I just hope it acts as a conscious reminder that the majority of the team is of unique heritage and Sterling has been a real hero on the pitch, not just off it.
They seem comfortable in front of the media, perhaps social media has also helped evolve these players into not being afraid of being human and personable, and that these qualities endear them to the public. Rashford, Sterling, Henderson and all have taken on so much more with their charitable responses to Covid and battle against racism, literacy and free school meals. I am sure that other generations of England teams would have done the same but it’s this team that has to rise to this crisis of their time. Moez Khan, music teacher, Sussex
‘I’ll be working a night shift as a midwife for the NHS’
Unfortunately I’ll be working a night shift as a midwife for the NHS with wholly Scottish colleagues! I’m the only English person there. I’ll try to avoid the score and then hopefully watch it at home the next morning. Devastated I’ll be missing it live though. I watched the 1996 semi-final and was working then, too, so had to get a taxi to work before the penalties only to be massively disappointed. Here in Scotland, now the Scottish team are out, you’d almost not notice there was a big tournament happening at all. And to make it worse, my partner is also Scottish. He always supports whoever England plays against just to wind me up; although I think he is secretly a bit happy that England are in the final.Anyway, I’ll try to avoid the score until Monday morning! Come on England. Jo, 47, midwife, Edinburgh
‘It’s been such an incredible journey to watch’
I‘ll be watching the final at a local brewery tap room in Leeds with my partner and friends. I’ll be wearing the England shirt I bought for the tournament which they’ve won every match I’ve worn it for (didn’t wear it for the Scotland game) and my partner will also be wearing an England shirt begrudgingly – it’s brought luck too even though football shirts aren’t her thing! Some friends who are coming along aren’t the biggest football fans but have really bought into this England team, the players are likeable and particularly like Gareth Southgate and how eloquently he has spoken about racism and the players taking the knee. It feels fantastic.
I’ve never seen England reach a final in my lifetime and I managed to watch the semi-final with my family who I hadn’t seen in months, despite being a nervous wreck, it was such a positive emotional experience that I’ll never forget. Hugging my stepdad at the end of the game, both of us emotionally spent. It’s been such an incredible journey to watch. Brady Frost, 26, marketer, Leeds
‘For the England-Italy game I’ll be wedged in the corner of the Black Horse Pub in Brooklyn, New York’
For the England-Italy game I’ll be wedged in the corner of the Black Horse Pub in Brooklyn, New York, over by the cable box and the old menus and the grey cutlery trays, peering up at whatever TV I can just about see amidst the crush, right next to Brian, the owner, a Spurs fan who loves Harry Kane like I do and I’m a Man U fan. Every time Kyle Walker gets the ball we’ll both shout: “Run, Kyle, run!” At some point, he’ll talk about Jimmy Greenhoff’s semi-final header against Liverpool in 1979, and I’ll go on about Luka Modrić a bit – we love each other by honouring each other’s lifelong passions. This is what we did during the Croatia semi-final and hundreds of Premier League games over the years, but then I left Brooklyn for LA in 2019. I’ve missed Brian and the Black Horse – and my Mancunian dad, too, who would have loved all this – so I’m going to NYC this weekend to watch England with Brian at his Black Horse, over by the old menus, and to secretly mourn and publicly shout at Kyle Walker and probably cry a bit whether we win or lose. Luke Dempsey, 52, writer, Los Angeles
‘After Kane scored on Wednesday night, we want to be back in the same place again for the final’
My best mate Martin has kept the hire for Sunday of a marquee that takes up the whole of his back garden in Urmston, Manchester. He had it for the semi-final. There’s a little bar area, seats, a couch and a projector. After Kane scored on Wednesday night, we all wanted to be back in the same place again for the final. I don’t know whether we should get a load of pizzas in on Sunday. Since it’s Italy, you never know if you’re jinxing it. I’m at the age where I’ve seen a few semi-finals before, but never a final. I’m quietly confident, though. We’ve always had 11 good players, but perhaps never 18 players. We have a lot of substitutions that could turn the game this weekend. Then again, we’re English, we’ve had our hearts broken before, so you never know. Chris Mooney, 45, Manchester
• This article was amended on 12 July 2021 to correct a date in the Luke Dempsey section.
