Win or lose on Sunday, England have given us something to be proud of | Simon Hattenstone
08-Jul-2021 11:30:43 | Guardian
Euro 2020 has seen football rediscover its sense of fun, beauty and solidarity, and helped us forget the last 16 months
It was a night of unparalleled hyperbole. Football might not have yet come home, but poetic licence certainly had. “The next 30 minutes could change your life,” warned the ITV match commentator, Sam Matterface, portentously as we entered extra time. “The good times have never felt so good,” he panted as England took the lead. And then the final whistle. “Open your eyes as wide as the Wembley arch and take note of where you are and who you’re with.”
And so it came to pass that England’s men’s team reached the final of a major football tournament for the first time in 55 years – courtesy of an own goal, a saved penalty (of course) successfully followed up by Harry Kane, the substitution of substitute Jack Grealish for looking dangerously creative, and a massed defence holding out against an exhausted 10-man Denmark. Still Matterface wasn’t done. “Call your boss, you ain’t coming in in the morning,” he commanded. Pandemic, Covid, WFH – WTF? It was as if the past 16 months simply hadn’t happened, and we were back in 2020 living the dream.
Related: Sterling and Saka lead charge as England throw off old anxieties | Jonathan Wilson
Simon Hattenstone is a Guardian feature writer
Continue reading...Read More