Touching me, touching you. England is in their first final since 1966. At Wembley, England reaches the Euro 2020 final after beating Denmark 2-1 in extra time on a historic night.
Gareth Southgate’s hoodoo breakers did it once more. Four consecutive semi-finals lost in extra time. The fifth won. When it was over the players and staff linked arms and sang Sweet Caroline as they stood in front of the small section of Wembley that houses family and friends Their loved ones.
They are the loved ones now, too, of course. The nation will love this. Love this team. Love what they stand for, what they represent. The resilience they showed, fighting back having gone a goal down. The bravery to win in a period of the match in which England teams have traditionally stumbled. Southgate let his emotion out, too. Walked to the noisiest section of the crowd, punching the air, clenching his fists, screaming at the top of his lungs. What a manager he is proving to be.
A yes man? Malleable? Don’t be soft. He brought fans’ favorite Jack Grealish on after 69 minutes, used him to run Denmark ragged, and then, having got ahead, removed him at half-time of extra time for Kieran Trippier to shut the game down. That is a different form of courage.
The bravery to be unpopular, to be the scapegoat if it goes wrong. With seven minutes to go, Martin Brathwaite had a shot tipped round by Jordan Pickford. Had that gone in, Southgate would have known who his critics would hold responsible. He didn’t care. He did what he believed was right for the team. That’s what leaders do.
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