England beat Germany and meet Ukraine in the quarter finals.

 England beat Germany and meet Ukraine in the quarter finals.

In the end we had nothing to worry about. It was a painless operation and the patient is recovering nicely. For the supporters, fans, players and managers who carry so much emotional baggage around with them whenever and wherever they go, this felt like the sweetest of all victories. It always feels like this because this fixture is laden with history, revenge, fiercely competitive spirit, often very personal rivalry and a deep seated animosity at times if only because familiarity quite literally breeds contempt. 

After what seems like an age, England finally beat Germany in tournament football and some of us were convinced that both luck and fate was on our side. Twenty years ago England travelled to Germany in a World Cup qualifier and Munich had probably seen nothing like it. Michael Owen scored, Steven Gerrard scored a 25 yard screamer just before half time and even Emile Heskey lent a helping hand. England's 5-1 thrashing of Germany put the final signature to an England display that has to rank as quite the most improbable and miraculous of all time. Nobody saw that one coming and last night felt just as good. 

Most of us can turn the clock back 25 and 55 years ago to a time when everything in England was perfect. The omens were encouraging, the mood was buoyant and summertime in London had arrived just in time for the wildest party of all time. When Terry Venables, Sir Alf Ramsey and Gareth Southgate led their respective teams out at the old Wembley it all seemed to bode well for English football. England had home advantage in 1996 and England possessed Paul Gascoigne, surely one of the most charming, roguish, cheeky and finest midfield players England had ever produced. 

In 1966 Nobby Stiles was the tigerish, gritty, tenacious and whole hearted bulldog who bit into tackles and left a permanent legacy on West German forwards. Bobby Moore was simply handsome and immaculate, a vision of poise, restraint and detachment from all the craziness around him. Martin Peters, Roger Hunt, George Cohen, Geoff Hurst, Jack Charlton and brother Bobby just dissolved in a pool of poignantly sentimental tears when the final whistle went at the end of the 1966 World Cup Final. Oh what glory they had been an essential part of. 

Exactly thirty years later, England had home advantage again when they hosted Euro 96 and if only we had known then what we now know then we would probably have made arrangements for a repeat performance. We also look back on the dreadful fiasco of the World Cup in South Africa 11 years ago when Wayne Rooney glared into a TV camera and accused the English supporters of a complete lack of loyalty. England were horrendous in World Cup 2010 and left the competition with the embarrassment of a 1-1 draw with the USA on their CV.

In 1972 Sir Alf Ramsey, Gunter Netzer, Franz Beckenbauer and company left England looking very sheepish, remorseful and apologetic. At Wembley the Germans played with a sublime brilliance and effortless authority that made the following morning's headlines look like greasy fish and chip paper. Since then the Germans have established the tightest stranglehold over England and the results have not made for satisfying reading. 

And then two years before then England, in the baking heat of Mexico, had fallen victim to Sir Alf Ramsey's rush of blood to the head. Cruising to victory with a two goal lead, Ramsey hauled off his best players and replaced them with dross. Gerd Muller tucked into second helpings, scored the winner, Gordon Banks had gone down with food poisoning and Peter Bonetti had an unfortunate attack of butter fingers. Then there was the 1996 European Championship when England had only to score an elusive winner in extra time but could only see their talisman Gazza slide in to meet a low cross with a lunging leg that couldn't quite connect. 

So it is that England approached their latest encounter with Germany in much the same bullish state of mind. The group stages had been a wobbly old road and it could have been all so different if the Czech Republic had made the most of their chances and Scotland converted their limited possession into goals. But then the goals came and England, the nation that clings on to its traditional stereotypes like a fond souvenir, came through its stiffest and most stringent test of them all.

And yet for well over an hour of last night's contest, both of these teams seemed to be going nowhere very quickly. The first half was almost as forgettable as the old TV Test Card and all of the fundamental dynamics had been swallowed up by the sheer magnitude of the occasion. England fumbled their way frighteningly into the match for the first quarter of an hour or so but the Germans looked equally as dumbfounded. There were tit for tat reprisals and counter reprisals, jabbing, sparring, flinging out tentative hooks and then being pinned to the canvas.

Then for the rest of the second half you were reminded of two rickety, rackety steam locomotive trains puffing and panting along the track and not quite sure what to make of it all. England laboured, plodded, lost the ball carelessly and occasionally Raheem Sterling would look the Germans in the eyes and just run forcefully at the German defence. But it all looked very slow, sluggish, slovenly, almost  despairing, pathetically clueless and you would have loved a penny for Gareth Southgate's thoughts. 

Slowly Declan Rice began to have the courage of his convictions, moving authoritatively and doing the simple things as and when he felt the time was right. John Stones eventually joined in with his colleagues in the middle of the pitch with pride and assurance while Kyle Walker showed his lightning turn of place at the back, sprinting past a wall of black German shirts. Walker may be approaching the autumn of his career but last night it seemed as though he was still enjoying the summer. 

Harry Maguire, who also experienced one or two minor and private difficulties before the beginning of the last Premier League season, was back on song, looking strong, commanding and calm with the ball at his feet. Maguire also radiated a nerveless composure as if his trials and tribulations were well and truly behind him. He covered behind Declan Rice with tidy efficiency and never really looked flustered. 

Then there was the rest of the English attack and this is where things briefly came unstuck. Kalvin Phillips of Leeds kept cutting in from the flank and into the centre of midfield rather like a lawnmower picking up stray pieces of grass. Philips was all hustle and bustle, passing economically and spraying the ball around with all the confidence of a player years ahead of his time. And yet the machine wasn't functioning as properly and fluently as England would have liked. Any comparison with Martin Peters though would not be a fitting one. 

Kieran Tripper, the hero of the 2018 World Cup with that thunderous free kick that gave England the lead in the semi final against Croatia, just wasn't the same player for much of the game against the Germans. Trippier and Luke Shaw of Manchester United were admittedly blameless but England lacked bite, teeth, urgency and cohesion. England kept allowing the ball to run away from them and it almost felt as if they were playing in the dark at times. 

Finally though England awoke from their slumber, having been snoring away quite happily in the deepest of sleeps. With the match now evenly contested and none ready to make the first move, the Germans saw an English tidal wave in their midst. The football the Germans had been trying to play was shoddy, sloppy and ramshackle, a team caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Do they try to sneak the winning goal in the last ten minutes or do they hang around for penalties yet again. There was an air of cautious circumspection about Germany we don't normally associate them with. Were they going to stick or twist, perhaps preferring poker since there was so much at stake. 

Down in the managerial technical area both managers were either deep in thought in their seat or trying to decipher a code that was somehow beyond them. Gareth Southgate, dressed properly for an important function or just sartorially correct. Southgate of course was that rather sad and forlorn England player responsible for that horrible penalty miss which ironically sent the national side packing in Euro 96 and the Germans into the Final where the Czechs were beaten by the Germans at Wembley. 

Standing a couple of inches away from Southgate was Joachim Low, the manager of Germany complete with grey shirt, grey trousers and grey face. Low's grim, sullen demeanour reminded you of the man who had lost his last tenner and simply ended up with nothing. Maybe he'd taken his cue from the miserable and cantankerous Helmut Schoen who was like a grizzly bear with a sore head when his national team were losing during the 1970s. 

And yet England suddenly woke up deep into the second half. It was as if somebody had given them an injection of energy or the realisation had dawned on them that this was Euro 2020. Raheem Sterling, now the stand out man and main catalyst for everything that was successful, drove forward with turbo charged pace, turning and twisting, taunting and tormenting then facing up to the Germans as if he had a personal score to settle with them. 

In a matter of seconds seemingly the match had flared into life, the  mains switch was on and Sterling was electrifying, irrepressible, a force of nature as if the spirit of Tom Finney and Stanley Matthews was still there and tapping on his shoulder.  Sterling, Phillips and the marvellously precocious Arsenal striker Bukayo Saka were hurtling down the flanks, Saka, quite notably chasing everything, powering forward without fear, jinking, darting, swaying and swerving his body with animal magnetism. 

Then England opened the scoring much to everybody's surprise in the context of everything that had gone before. Sterling was now on the footballing warpath and after a spellbinding Pass the Parcel with Luke Shaw across the face of the German penalty area, captain Harry Kane squared the ball at full pelt and Sterling came sliding in to tap the ball past Manuel Neuer into the net after some of the most constructive football of the match up until that point. 

At this point the Germans decided that enough was enough. The waves of attacking German shirts in black were merciless. Thomas Muller, who had been anonymous for most of this match, went racing through on goal for what seemed a certain equaliser for Germany but Muller was briefly distracted by some outside force and the ball went narrowly wide of Jason Pickford, England's goalkeeper. It was a vital pivotal moment for the Germans and costly. 

With minutes to go England re- wound themselves for one last heroic assault on the German goal. And unlike anything we've come to expect of them the movement leading up to the goal looked as though it had been borrowed from Claire Fontaine, the French academy for purists and learned technicians. You suspect the likes of Robert Pires, Emmanuel Petit, Zinadine Zidane and Thierry Henry would have been purring with appreciation of the goal. 

Luke Shaw, of Manchester United, who had been largely ineffectual, boldly strode into the German half  as if he'd given himself  permission to attack. Shaw rampaged forward, reaching the edge of the German penalty area before offloading to the game changer who was Jack Grealish. Grealish, who had just come on as a sub, adjusted his feet accordingly, tricking and daring his opponent, tomfoolery personified and Grealish laid a simple pass across the six yard box where the ravenous Harry Kane threw himself at the ball with a low, stooping header into the net for a now guaranteed victory for England. 

Finally England had abandoned their hoodoo over the Germans. There were 45,000 fans inside Wembley and a majority of them were England fans. German amber and black were in plentiful evidence. But after a year of synthetic, cosmetic Premier League football where no atmosphere at all could be detected, the St George flags of England were fluttering prominently for all to see. 

England will now meet Ukraine on Saturday in Rome. In another moment of ancient history this would have been the moment for the gladiators to emerge from the amphitheatre and the Colosseum to greet the warriors ready to fight to the bitter end. England will probably brandish their shields and swords but there are no Julius Caesars ready to answer the call to arms for England manager Gareth Southgate. 

The assumption of course now is that this, in theory, is the easiest opposition England could have hoped for. But then you remembered Iceland in Euro 2016 and reviewed your assessment of the game. England have unfinished business in their In tray to attend to. England will have to tread wearily here because nothing is safe in their hands yet. You can only imagine a vast Ukranian fortress is in the process of being built as we speak. Nothing is ever as easy and straightforward when discussions turn to the England football team. Be prepared even if you're not a scout.