Euro 2020 – Coming Home?

Well, what a summer it has been. 1 month, 51 incredible matches and some dramatic moments in this summers’ delayed Euro 2020 championships. My initial plan had been to preview the final with this piece, however due to time constraints and other issues getting it out on time, I have since scrapped the draft and instead will reflect on what has unfolded over the last few days.

On Sunday 11th July, England played in a major final for the first time since 1966, 55 years ago. To put that into some perspective, this is way before I was on this planet, and even before my parents had been born. It is simply marvellous for England to finally see success, and not only this, but to have a whole nation believing we could do it. This was nothing against Italy or any prior opponents, but simply believing that we have a great squad, and although for about 2 years we have seen debates and disagreements over squad selection, Southgate’s capabilities and everything else, what we saw was simply delightful.

So, after all the optimism, enjoyment and emotion it did feel like Monday was a day of mourning, not just for myself, not just for football fans, but for everyone in this country. I have spoken with friends, family and colleagues who hate football but were shouting at their tv sets for 120 minutes, and it was a ‘you had to be there’ televised events. It was and remains heart-breaking, but somehow I can get over the loss in a final on penalties, because of what came before it. From that opening group win during one of the year’s hottest days and seeing England shirts being worn out and about, to the Germany win in which England were efficient, effective and exciting. It honestly has been another great time footballing wise, at the re-opening of society who have been cooped up for some time.

I am sure that the time will come where I will sit and re-watch the whole final (when my emotions allow), however for now it’s simply a thankyou. Thankyou to Southgate for being the calmest man in the room when we needed it, thankyou to the backroom staff in particular Steve Holland who is massively underrated in the England setup, all the players from Pickford and his leadership, Sterling with the goals, Luke Shaw for that strike, and every single player who volunteered to step up and take a penalty when it mattered. The misses are unfortunate, and given 99 more attempts I am certain most of the three lads would score all 99. We as a nation look for blame, but there’s no blame here. We played the game and sure tactically we perhaps didn’t need the game to even get to extra-time, but it did and we dealt with it as we could. Only winning would prevent the ‘blame game’, but as a nation we must look past that, and instead celebrate and learn from it. The World Cup of 2018 was a warm up, the Euros of 2020 (2021) the dress rehearsal, and next year World Cup 2022 can be the main event. I have faith, many fans now have faith and so do the squad themselves.

So, England, head to Qatar and bring it home (for real this time).