After 55 years of pain, could England break their trophy drought?

Just as when they finally won a penalty shoot-out against Colombia in the 2018 World Cup Finals, it feels a step on a longer ladder that could finally see Gareth Southgate’s side reach their full potential, writes Chris Hatherall. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool)

This has been the era in which long waits for trophies have finally been rewarded, so could England really be next in line after knocking out Germany in a fervent, guttural atmosphere at Wembley in which all the pain of 55 years without a trophy was all but purged?

The goals from Raheem Sterling and captain Harry Kane, who himself has had to play a waiting game in a difficult campaign, lit up a tournament which was already dizzy from ‘Magic Monday’ in which France were knocked out and Spain hit five. Now Euro 2020 has gone stratospheric.

England will play either Sweden or Ukraine in Rome on Saturday, but this was more than just a routine victory to reach the last eight. It was a victory that pierced the bubble of history, which wiped out decades of underachievement and lack of belief, even if those on the outside accuse England so often of being arrogant.

Now the challenge for Gareth Southgate and his side of Premier League stars is can they take hope and encouragement from what Liverpool fans have been through before finally reaching the other side of what seemed like an interminable wait for glory?

The omens at least are good because we are living in an age when the football mould has regularly been broken.

In the last year, Leicester ended a 137-year wait for the FA Cup, Brentford said goodbye to 74 years without playing in the top flight, and Liverpool famously ended 30 years of hurt by lifting the Premier League. So, why not England who have gone 55 years without an international trophy but are now dreaming that football, after so many false dawns, really is coming home?

The weight of history is not easy to bear. Look how Liverpool suffered in their wait for a title as they failed to live up to the Kop heroes of the 1970s and '80s, constantly compared to the legends of the past and falling short so often in comparison.

But this England team is young, many of the players were not born even when Gazza and co. took them to the semi-finals of Euro 96 before losing on penalties to Germany, a familiar agony that has defined English football history. They didn’t grow up in the shadow of Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst, they weren’t on the pitch when penalties were missed and when dreams were ended, time after time.

So, when Manchester City winger Sterling, who was outstanding all match as England’s main attacking threat, finished off a stunning move after 76 minutes to put them ahead the atmosphere at Wembley was astonishing.

The guttural roar that swept around the famous stadium, the incredible energy that fizzed and prickled in the air was exactly what Liverpool missed out on when they won the Premier League and celebrated it without fans at Anfield – and it may well signal a new era for a national team that has underachieved for so long.

The fact that Kane, much maligned in this tournament after failing to score in the group stages, headed the second goal was the icing on the cake. The Tottenham man, stuck in a transfer tug of war at club level, had looked slovenly and impotent for most of the match but took his chance when it came and will now, surely, show his real form when England travel to Rome this weekend.

That goal, and the remarkable noise that greeted the final whistle, followed by an inevitable rendition of Football’s Coming Home will become one of the iconic moments in European Championship history, and with the semi-finals and final both due to be staged at Wembley, it may not be the last.

When it comes to international football rivalries, England v Germany is right up there. They may not be geographical neighbours but football history has brought them into contact on so many high-profile occasions – and there has always been some kind of controversy or drama to mark it. Now there is another chapter in the story.

Just as when they finally won a penalty shoot-out against Colombia in the 2018 World Cup Finals, it feels a step on a longer ladder that could finally see Southgate’s side reach their full potential.

There is an unhealthy obsession in England with the disappointments of the past – and there was endless pre-match coverage of Southgate, Chris Waddle, Stuart Pearce, and co. missing penalties as team-mates stood head in hands crying on pitches across the world.

But they didn’t need penalties this time, they didn’t need tears – and you have to say it was just as exciting as anything that Magic Monday had to offer.

Love them or hate them, England are box office. The drama, the emotion, the noise, the passion, is something to remember. And with the shackles of history no longer holding them down, there may be more to come…