Road to the Final

Group Stage: England 1-0 Croatia 

 The opener saw Gareth Southgate’s side face the last team to beat them in a major tournament, Croatia. 

This time around it was a different story however as Raheem Sterling latched onto a Kalvin Phillips through ball and slotted home his first-ever major tournament goal. The boy from Brent was only just getting started.  

Group Stage: England 0-0 Scotland 

 Next up it was the Auld Enemy as Scotland travelled to Wembley for a grudge match, however there was nothing to separate the two sides in the end. 

John Stones came closest when he crashed a header onto the woodwork in the first half as the game failed to live up to the classic meeting 25 years previously. 

Group Stage: Czech Republic 0-1 England

The final group stage test for Southgate and his players was a Czech Republic side, who’d started well beating Scotland and getting a draw out of Croatia. 

A third consecutive clean sheet and the timely return of Harry Maguire gave England the perfect platform for victory as another Sterling winner at Wembley guaranteed top spot and set up a clash with arch-rivals Germany in the last 16. 

Round of 16: England 2-0 Germany 

The big one. Germany and England. The history, the passion, the rivalry. It was the game everyone wanted to see.

And it delivered in a big way. Sterling’s third of the tournament followed by a second goal late on from the skipper Harry Kane sent the Wembley crowd into raptures. Revenge has never tasted so sweet. 

Quarter-final: Ukraine 0-4 England 

The Three Lions arrived in the quarter-finals riding on the crest of a wave and opened the scoring after just four minutes through Kane again. 

At times, it looked like they may never concede again and when the goals started flooding in at the other end, it was euphoria for fans. 

Kane’s second bookended a trademark Maguire header before Jordan Henderson came off the bench to score his first-ever international goal at the 62nd attempt. Fitting. 

Semi-final: England 2-1 Denmark (after extra-time) 

Which brings us up to England’s latest triumph. 60,000 fans packed into Wembley to see England challenge for a spot in their first major final in 55 years. But it felt like the entire nation was in the stands. 

Then something unexpected happened, England were pegged back by a brilliant Mikkel Damsgaard free-kick and were going to have to come from behind to do it. 

Sure enough that’s exactly what they did, as Sterling forced Simon Kjaer to turn the ball into his own net before half-time and Kane rattled in an extra-time penalty rebound after Kasper Schmeichel had saved the initial effort.