Euro 2020

WE’VE waited 55 years for football to come home — and it’s going to be here for years when it does.I’ve said all along that this is our time, that England will win the Euros, that we’ll never have a better chance to lift a trophy.
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England have waited 55 years for this golden opportunity of tournament successCredit: Getty
Harry Redknapp is confident England WILL beat Italy to win the EurosCredit: Louis Wood News Group Newspaper Ltd
And when we do — because I am more confident than ever about beating Italy tonight — don’t think this is the end of the journey. Far from it . . . this might only be the start.
Winning the tournament would — make that will! — be great but there’s no way this is a one-off.
This lot really CAN be the golden generation. England really CAN be a major force in the Euros and World Cups for a long time.
Germany have done it in the past, there was a time when France dominated, and Spain — with the likes of Xavi and Andres Iniesta — as well.
Look at the number of kids in this England group and there’s no reason why this should not be their time, why it shouldn’t be the start of something massive.
The likes of Bukayo Saka, who was a surprise choice to even be in the squad, Phil Foden, Jadon Sancho — in football terms they are still babies.
Jude Bellingham, Declan Rice, Mason Mount, Jack Grealish, Raheem Sterling… these lads will be around for ages.
There’s Reece James waiting in the wings, there’s Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mason Greenwood who both had to sit out the Euros.

⚽ ENGLAND vs ITALY EURO 2020 FINAL BETTING SPECIAL ⚽

Gareth Southgate has rejuvenated the England national sideCredit: The Sun

The future couldn’t be brighter.
First things first, though, let’s get tonight’s final won before we start celebrating anything else. And as confident as I am, it’s not going to be a picnic.
We have the best players, for sure but, putting emotions aside, England are going to have to play better than they did against Denmark.
Italy will pass, pass, pass and try to play through us.
We’ll have more possession and they will try to hit us on the counter.
You have to respect their record. They are on a long unbeaten run and Roberto Mancini has done as good a job with them as Gareth Southgate with England.
Roberto Mancini has masterminded a stunning 33-game unbeaten runCredit: AP
Italy have impressed many with their passing and attacking footballCredit: AFP
They’ll look to open us up with quick breaks when we turn the ball over, so concentration levels can’t drop for a second.
But defensively we have been rock solid and there’s nothing that makes me think it will be any different tonight.
I can’t really see Gareth changing much to be honest, unless he brings in Foden or Sancho for Saka. But certainly nothing else.
And while Italy’s Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini are two incredible centre-backs, real warriors, our pace can definitely cause them huge problems.
Neither will want to see Sterling and Saka running the pockets and getting at them. They gave the Danish defence a nightmare and their movement can do the same against Italy.
Harry Kane is ready to lead the Three Lions to gloryCredit: PA
And if it’s tight ­— which I fully expect — and it comes down to who’s got the strongest bench, then England win that one hands-down.
We’ve already seen how much damage Grealish can cause when he comes on against tired legs and you can imagine the same happening against Italy.
I must admit it was a really bold and brave move by Southgate to take him off again when he wanted to see it out against Denmark.
If that had gone belly-up he’d have been slaughtered, and he knew it. But if he was going to put Keiran Trippier on, Jack was the obvious one to make way.
The England players are going through their final preparations for their date with destinyCredit: Getty
Raheem Sterling has been brilliant for England this summerCredit: AFP
Harry Kane was never coming off, Foden had only just come on and their defenders couldn’t get near Raheem.
Funnily enough I nearly backed Harry to be top scorer when there was all that talk about whether he should even play or not, because I knew he’d come good before long.
Now he’s only one goal behind the leading pair and it wouldn’t surprise me if he ended up as No 1 at the Euros, just like he did at the World Cup.
Being at Wembley is a massive advantage for England as well and I’ll be in the crowd cheering them on tonight. A mate has invited me and I can’t wait.
Wednesday was such a great result, a great night for the whole country.
There’s a feelgood factor everywhere you go and everyone’s talking about football for the right reasons again.
Fingers crossed they’ll be doing the same again after this — and I’m 100 per cent confident about that.
Come on England!
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England heroes train for last time ahead of Euro 2020 final with Italy but Phil Foden sits out due to ‘minor knock’ More

ENGLAND Captain Harry Kane has promised fans “a good night of good memories” as he aims for Euros glory in the final against Italy at 8pm.And last night the Queen and Prince ­William sent stirring messages urging Gareth Southgate’s Lions to “bring it home”.
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We imagined Kane and the Three Lions as our 1966 Euros legends
Kane wants to follow Sir Geoff Hurst’s 1966 heroicsCredit: Getty

Harry wants to follow Sir Geoff Hurst’s 1966 heroics, saying: “You want to be the one who scores the goal, and be the match winner in a major game.
“Sir Geoff has an amazing moment in history — it’s the moment that everyone looks back on.”
Kane added: “We’re proud to be able to bring joy to people after what’s been a tough couple of years.
“To know we’re doing that is the most important thing, and we want to give them one more good night of good memories.”
We’re proud to be able to bring joy to people after what’s been a tough couple of years.Harry Kane
Hundreds cheered the team coach yesterday as it left St George’s Park, Staffs, for The Grove hotel near Watford.
Boss Southgate, 50, said “phenomenal” support at Wembley and across the nation had made a huge difference.
Gareth Southgate says ‘phenomenal’ support from fans has made a huge differenceCredit: The Sun
The Queen and Prince William have urged the Three Lions to ‘bring it home’ againCredit: AP:Associated Press

He added: “It’s not an experience we have had for a long time.
“The players are feeling that warmth, connection and that energy.”Nervous fans are set to down 38 million pints.
Eighty per cent of people aged over nine are expected to watch, beating the 32.3 million record for the 1966 final.
KYLE IN MOOD FOR A PARTYExclusive by Michael Hamilton
KYLE Walker has hailed the Three Lions fans for creating raucous atmospheres at Wembley and in fanzones — admitting he is desperate to join in the celebrations.
The England defender, 31, said: “It makes me want to be there when they are chucking the beers and stuff — I’m thinking, ‘Get me involved with this’. It’s absolutely brilliant.
“The fans have been fantastic but it will step up for the final at Wembley. Sweet Caroline, let’s be belting it out — please. It’s great.
“You have to give us one more, we want one more from you.
“And we’ve got one job to do — we don’t want to be collecting a silver medal. I want to be remembered for lifting the European Championship at Wembley.”
Walker gave an insight into life in the England bubble when he revealed that youngsters Phil Foden, 21, and Jude Bellingham, 18, made tea on the way to Wednesday’s semi-final win over Denmark at Wembley.
And he poked fun at keeper Jordan Pickford, 27, for complaining about the grime music that Raheem Sterling, 26, and Jadon Sancho, 21, blasted out in the coach when returning to their training camp at Burton-upon-Trent, Staffs.
Man City ace Walker said of the starlets: “They make me feel young. Every one of them is so humble and down to earth — they are a pleasure to be around.”
The dad of three also told how he takes inspiration from passionate American motivational speaker Eric ‘ET’ Thomas, 50, whose mantras include: “You will not outwork me.”
Walker added: “I listen to him so much.
“I might not be technically gifted, but I will still run more than anybody there.
“I love chasing people. When you hear someone behind you, it’s not nice and it makes you hurry.”

Gareth Southgate and Harry Kane look ahead to Euro 2020 final More

FIFTY-FIVE years of hurt, five years of Brexit and 16 months of Covid – no wonder we feel like a party.There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and for once it is not an oncoming train.
⚽ Follow ALL of the latest news and updates from Euro 2020 with our live blog
Tonight’s final, our first in a major tournament since 1996, is already monumentalCredit: AP
Gareth Southgate’s squad have lifted the mood of a nation that has had its heart broken too many timesCredit: Getty
It is a heavenly light, full of hope, joy and redemption.
It is the light that shines in the great curved arch above Wembley Stadium, and it is the light that promises a lovely day tomorrow.
England v Italy tonight, our first final in a major tournament since 1966, is already monumental.
And coming after all the misery of the greatest health emergency for over a century, it feels like the biggest football match in a lifetime.
So much has been endured by so many for so long. And that’s just the football.
There is the misery of losing in those three semi-finals in 1990, 1996 and 2018. The memory of botched penalty shootouts, English tears and Germans strutting, as if glorious failure was the best that we could ever manage.
And then there is the misery of another kind, the tears that come from a much deeper well, the wounds that can only be inflicted by real life.
GLOBAL TRAGEDY
This football tournament has been played in the long, life-rending shadow of the pandemic.
That makes tonight more than just a football match.
Coronavirus has touched every life in the land. Families have been torn apart, the education of our children has been devastated, livelihoods have been wrecked.
If England beat Italy tonight, it will provoke the biggest party in this country since VE DayCredit: Rex
Just like in 1945, fountains will be for dancing in and statues will be for climbingCredit: Alamy
The statistics — 128,000 dead from Covid, the longest NHS waiting list in history — are a glimpse of a mountain of human misery.
For those of us born since 1945, the pandemic is our only experience of seeing our lives upended by a great global tragedy beyond our control.
And even before the pandemic struck, this was not a happy land. Our country was violently divided by the referendum of 2016.
The vote to Leave the EU was the largest vote for anything in British history.
But the vote to Remain was the second largest vote for anything in British history.
The bitter aftermath and years of political paralysis have divided families, ended friendships and fractured the country.
Covid, Brexit and a lifetime of English football failing to live up to our hopes and dreams. No wonder we are ready for liberation.
No wonder we are caught up in a rush of collective euphoria. Thanks to England going all the way to the final of Euro 2020, we feel like one nation once more.
We’ve suffered through five years of turmoil since the Brexit voteCredit: The Times
And the country is emerging from the misery of the greatest health emergency for over a centuryCredit: The Times
And it feels so good that, whatever happens against Italy, I don’t think it will ever wear off.
I have never seen crowds quite as delirious with joy as they were at Wembley at the end of the England games against Germany and Denmark.
I have never seen an expression on a player’s face like the one Phil Foden wore when Harry Kane scored against Denmark. This bliss, this rapture, this jubilation — it is not normal. This ecstasy is on another level.
It is unfettered happiness that is laced with relief, release and perhaps a touch of hysteria.
As a nation, we have been full of fear, anxiety and apprehension for too long.
These thrilling, life-affirming, nerve-shredding, fun-packed Euros have unleashed endorphins into every corner of our country.
As a nation, we have been full of fear, anxiety and apprehension for too long.
You can sense it everywhere now — a giddy cocktail of joy, pride and disbelief. This is really happening.
Gareth Southgate’s England have lifted the mood of a nation that has been battered, bruised and had its heart broken too many times, and in too many ways.
England’s victory in the 1966 World Cup Final had exactly the same power.
It’s no wonder our newly-united nation is ready to partyCredit: EPA
These thrilling Euros have unleashed endorphins into every corner of our countryCredit: PA
For my parents, and aunts and uncles, and all the grown-ups in our Essex suburb, the war was not history.
It was something they had all lived through just over 20 years before Bobby Moore lifted that Jules Rimet trophy.
When my dad took his shirt off at the beach or in the garden, people were shocked to see that his upper torso was a livid mass of scar tissue, the souvenir of a Nazi grenade. For that generation, the war would never really be over.
WE DESERVE THIS
But that sunny, rain-soaked day at Wembley in 1966 helped them to believe that the horrors of the war were part of history now.
It was only a football match, but it mattered, it mattered desperately to a country that yearned to have its pride restored — and witnessing Bobby Moore smile and Nobby Stiles dance and Bobby Charlton cry lifted the spirits of all England.
But since that sacred day in 1966, England fans have been forced to bear glum witness to a cavalcade of calamity, cock-ups and crashing out too soon.
And the worst of this has been the nagging feeling that England falling short was somehow written in the stars.
But not any more. And never again.
Whatever happens against Italy, Gareth Southgate and this beautiful, brilliant team have given the nation back its mojo, its zip, its pride. It is a special feeling. And we deserve this moment. All of us.
Southgate’s team have reminded us all why we fell in love with football in the first placeCredit: PA
At just 23, Marcus Rashford has taken on the Government and wonCredit: PA
Harry Kane, Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson are all talented leaders, and it rubs offCredit: Getty
The players, that manager, this nation. England are a team full of captains.
Harry Kane, Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson — leaders of their clubs, leaders of men. And it rubs off — many of these players seem far older than their years.
Raheem Sterling, the player of the tournament, looks like a veteran at 26.
Declan Rice and Mason Mount are both just 22. Marcus Rashford is still only 23 — and he has already taken on the Government over free school meals for underprivileged kids. And won.
So many of those players have triumphed over adversity — absent fathers (Kalvin Phillips’ father in jail, Sterling’s shot dead when he was two, Rashford’s single mum working multiple jobs to feed her kids), early disappointments (Declan Rice dropped by Chelsea at 14) and terrible career-threatening injuries (Luke Shaw’s horrific double leg break in 2015).
They are a likeable lot, and a loveable team, and there is real affection for them in this country.
Mason Mount going to the crowd to give Belle McNally, ten, his shirt felt symptomatic of this team’s inherent decency.
They are an England shaped in the image of their manager. Full of steely resilience, capable of real flair and ultimately steeped in a sense of what is right.
You sense they will not only be better footballers under Gareth Southgate’s tutelage. They will also be better men.
It is Gareth Southgate who has made England’s dreaming a glorious reality, Southgate who is creating a new narrative for our football team. It is rendered possible because, of course, he is such an integral part of that story.
Win tonight and the brave, heartbroken boy who missed his penalty against the Germans in 1996 becomes the thoughtful, decent, brilliant man who gave us our first glittering prize since 1966.
If we win, nobody will be able to tell you there are strict rules about singing, hugging and kissing strangersCredit: EPA
Gareth Southgate’s England reminds us all why we fell in love with football as children, and there are boys and girls who will watch the Italy game tonight who will recall every moment 50 years from now — just as I recall watching that final in 1966 on a black-and-white TV set with my mum.
It is only a football match — honest. But the drama will be seared into our collective ­consciousness for ever.
And if England beat Italy tonight, it will provoke the biggest party in this country since VE Day. Fountains will be for dancing in. Statues will be for climbing.
Nobody will be able to tell you there are strict rules about singing, hugging and kissing strangers. Not tonight. Tonight, tonight.
NAILS THOSE LIES
If we win tonight, then it will be the best feeling ever. Win tonight, and a country that has been divided for so long will celebrate as one, all England fans together, and a united nation once more.
Win tonight, and some of the terrible wounds of the pandemic will be salved, and some tears will be dried, and all that has been lost and denied and cancelled over the past 16 months will somehow be more bearable.
If England beat Italy tonight, it will provoke the biggest party in this country since VE Day.
Tonight is one of those sporting events that defines the mood of a nation and says something real and true about who we are now.
This England squad are a credit to this nation. They embody the best of us. For too long this country has been insulted, traduced and done down.
We have been told our history should be a source of shame.
Our monuments to our war dead have been desecrated and our greatest heroes reviled. We have been called racist bigots too often.

This country’s love for this magnificently multiracial England team, this reflection of who we are now, forever nails all those lies.
This happy breed, this band of brothers — they have already given us memories that we will cherish for ever.
But we do not have to beat Italy tonight to make us proud of Gareth Southgate, this England team and our country. We are proud of them already.
Gareth Southgate and Harry Kane look ahead to Euro 2020 final More