On an historic night inside the famous Wembley caldron, Gareth Southgate’s band of merry-men booked their spot in the Euro 2020 showpiece on Sunday.
England vs Denmark Highlights and Review 07 July 2021
After cruising past Ukraine in the quarter-finals, they were made to work frightfully hard by a superb Danish side that pushed them all the way to the brink.
In the end, England needed extra-time and a controversial penalty to edge out the brave Danes after Mikkel Damsgaard had put them ahead through an absolute peach of a first-half free-kick.
Simon Kjaer put through his own net to level the scores after Harry Kane set Bukayo Saka scuttling away and from then on in it was all about the goalkeepers.
Kasper Schmeichel, in particular, was superb but Jordan Pickford made some incredibly important saves of his own.
In truth, it was an accomplished England performance from front to back on a day when going behind could have sent them into a spiral.
Fortunately, unlike times of old, they were able to dust themselves off and fight their way back into the clash.
While it might not have been saturated with goals, it was a far more encouraging performance than the Ukraine thrashing in Rome.
The outpouring of emotion from the 60,000 fans packed into Wembley at the final whistle showed just how much this win meant to the nation.
Having been forced to watch the beautiful game from the safety of their homes for 18-months, those fans were always going to make the most of an iconic moment in England’s footballing history.
For one young fan though, it will be a night that will be impossible to forget.
Amid the frenzied celebrations, Chelsea and England star Mason Mount took the time to make a young fan’s entire year as he walked over and passed her his match-worn shirt.
The young lady was simply overcome with joy as she screamed and hugged her dad and fans gathered near by congratulated her for landing such an incredible piece of memorabilia.
What a special moment – well done, Mason.
However, while there may be many a sore head in England today, there is still plenty of work to be done with a mighty Italian side lying in wait for the Three Lions.
Southgate will have allowed himself a few moments to take in the gravity of what his side have achieved but you can be sure that he’s back hard at work today.
The Italian’s are going to take some beating but, if it can be done, just imagine the scenes inside Wembley.