Latest slice of luck lets England dream again

Nobody saw Roy Hodgson sneak into Gdynia on the eve of Euro 2012 but he was surely there; how else do you explain how the luck of the Irish, so painfully missing in the group stages in northern Poland, has turned up wearing an England shirt in Ukraine — and like a disloyal cat fed cuts of salmon by a wealthy neighbour, shows no signs of returning home?

There probably wasn’t a pundit in Europe who gave England a prayer of winning this tournament before it began given the chaotic nature of their preparation; but with luck on their side suddenly even the most reluctant Anglophile must be wondering if it really could happen.

The fortune that deserted Ireland in their disastrous campaign is very much in Hodgson’s camp after his team battled their way to a 1-0 victory over Ukraine to finish top of Group D and secure a quarter-final against an unconvincing Italy side in Kiev on Sunday.