In a result that brought widespread dismay on this side of the Irish Sea, England finally got the better of Germany at a major tournament on Tuesday to progress to the quarter-finals of EURO 2020.
Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane were the goalscorers on a big day for England.
#ENG 2-0 #GER
Harry Kane finally gets off the mark at #EURO2020 to put the game beyond Germany.#ENGGER #RTEsoccer
📱 Live updates - https://t.co/iObyg4T6Ad
📺 Watch live - https://t.co/bZMmmPDnlU pic.twitter.com/mZ8J15lIl8— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) June 29, 2021
No one can deny England are now on the easier side of the draw. They'll play either Sweden or Ukraine in the semi-finals, with their opponents to be decided on Tuesday evening.
The winner of that quarter-final will play Denmark or the Czech Republic in the semis, with Belgium, Italy, and Spain all together on the other side of the draw.
BBC pundits talk up England EURO chances
Even with the easier draw taken into consideration, the English pundits on BBC after the game certainly took it up a notch with their confidence of England glory at EURO 2020.
Alan Shearer - who was a part of the last England team to get to the semi-finals of a European Championships in 1996 - suggested that this is England's greatest ever chance of going all the way.
If you could have picked something like that beforehand, you would have. As I said before the game, there was a lot of talk on "oh, we can't finish top because we might play France, we might play Portugal" - you've got to go on and see what happens.
They've beaten Germany, they've done it in an impressive way. The draw is decent, I would say.
England will never, ever, ever have a better opportunity of winning the Euros than this opportunity now.
If they're lucky enough to get to a final, that would've been six games out of seven at Wembley. You can't ask for any more than that with an atmosphere like this.
Shearer's point about home advantage was echoed by Rio Ferdinand and Jurgen Klinsmann in studio, though they did conveniently forget to mention the controversy caused by English fans booing the German national anthem at the beginning of Tuesday's game.
This is not British. It’s not sporting. You just don’t boo the opposing team’s national anthem. pic.twitter.com/Ojm2sz3WP1
— Tim Walker (@ThatTimWalker) June 29, 2021
The BBC panel was hopping after the game, with Gary Lineker virtually mentioning 1966 in every single question.
Shearer's comments were admittedly somewhat withdrawn, but Rio Ferdinand presented the classic Ferdinand stance, buoyantly suggesting England had nothing to fear.
When you look at that draw there, I know them lads will be sitting there in the hotel and thinking "there's no one in there that we can fear."
France were the only team there that you look at and think, "that's gonna give us a really hard game."
Look, they're all gonna be tough games, we know that. There's no one in there you'd think, "I'd rather skip getting that team." Everyone in that draw there, they will feel confident that they can beat, and rightly so.
The former German striker Jurgen Klinsmann believes England have an excellent chance to win the tournament, but also warned that the team must not get carried away.
You've got to keep the team right there in the moment. You've got to live the day and prepare them now in the best way for the quarter-finals, think of nothing else but the quarter-finals.
Don't go ahead and think "we'll be back here for the semi-finals", don't get carried away. But they won't.
Klinsmann was then pushed by Alan Shearer to give in and admit that England had an easy run to the final - but he wasn't budging, again imploring England to just take the tournament one game at a time.
It could turn out a huge advantage, but you've gotta take every game at a time and win it first. All of them will be nail biters.
We suggest you mute the words "England" and "It's Coming Home" on Twitter for the next few days, because we're surely going to hear far too much of both as the quarter-final against Sweden or Ukraine approaches.
And, sure, maybe they have a right to be excited. But if the next few days of England coverage at the Euros are filled with as much confidence as was on show on BBC on Tuesday, we might just find it insufferable.
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