Euro 2020: Sterling, Kane star as England secure quarterfinals berth

England beat Germany 2-0 on Tuesday to reach the Euro 2020 quarterfinals and end decades of hurt against their bitter rivals as Sweden and Ukraine faced off to complete the last-eight line-up.

Raheem Sterling broke the deadlock at
Wembley with a quarter of an hour remaining and Harry Kane finally opened his
tournament account to end the contest.

England beat the Germans to win the 1966
World Cup final on home soil but their major tournament history has been
littered with painful exits against them since.

The Three Lions were eliminated from the
1970, 1990 and 2010 World Cups by Germany, who also beat them in the Euro 96
semi-finals at Wembley.

The Germans, who have won the European
Championship three times in their illustrious history, had chances to score,
notably a first-half effort by Timo Werner and a golden late chance for Thomas
Mueller, but lacked a cutting edge.

England, who themselves looked short of
inspiration for much of the contest, finally broke the deadlock when Luke Shaw
crossed for Sterling to finish from close range.

Mueller should have equalised when Kai
Havertz’s pass sent him clean through, but the Bayern Munich star rolled his
shot wide and fell to the turf in dismay.

Kane made Germany pay in the 86th minute as
he finished off a lethal England counter-attack with a diving header past
Manuel Neuer from substitute Jack Grealish’s cross.

That was the first goal of the tournament
for the Tottenham man, who has been a shadow of the player who won the Golden
Boot at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

“It’s a brilliant afternoon,”
England boss Gareth Southgate told the BBC. “We talked about bringing
enjoyment to the nation really and afternoons like this are what that’s about. The
players were absolutely immense, right the way through the team and the fans
were as well. Only 40,000, but it’s as good an atmosphere as I can remember at
Wembley.

“We played extremely well. I think we
deserved the win, but I’ve had to say to them (the players) straight away,
look, ‘I’m the party-pooper because if we don’t capitalise on that on Saturday
now, then it doesn’t count for anything’.”

England, World Cup semi-finalists three
years ago, have been solid if unspectacular this tournament but they have yet
to concede a goal and the draw is opening up invitingly for them.

They head to Rome on Saturday for a
quarter-final against the winners of the Sweden v Ukraine match, which kicked
off later Tuesday in Glasgow.

If they can win that game they would face
the Czech Republic or Denmark for a place in the final, also being held at
Wembley.

Article source: https://www.samaa.tv/sports/football/2021/06/euro-2020-sterling-kane-star-as-england-secure-quarterfinals-berth/