Raheem Sterling admits he was concerned his breakthrough goal for England against Germany was offside as he sparked wild celebrations at Wembley.
England kept Germany at arms length in the first half, before taking their chances in the second as Sterling converted Luke Shaw's low cross in front of goal to the delight of England players and fans inside the stadium. With four minutes of normal time remaining Harry Kane headed home a second to confirm England's passage to the Euro 2020 quarter-finals.
Sterling was one of England's brightest attacking sparks, and the game's opener was his third of the tournament - with Kane's goal England's first of the tournament not scored by the Manchester City man.
However, Sterling admitted he wasn't sure if he had strayed offside, and was concerned the celebrations would be for nothing if VAR had pulled it back.
He told BBC Sport: "doing it for your country would always be special it’s definitely a special moment. I celebrated for half a second and then I thought 'let it not be offside', but yeah really happy it went in and got the win.
"We knew we needed to put in a good performance against a good side and I think we did that today."
Sterling also reserved praise for England's two defensive midfielders, Kalvin Phillips and Declan Rice, who protected the defence and kept England pressing forward.
He said: "We knew the intensity we could play at and we know teams can’t play up to it but we kept going. The two boys in midfield Declan Rice and Phillips were class, they were animals in there and it was a great team performance.
"We take it game by game, we see who we play now. Recover and focus onto the next one."
