England beat Germany 2-0 to go through to Quarter-Finals

England beat Germany 2-0 to go through to Quarter-Finals

England have finally conquered Germany at a major tournament after beating Joachim Low’s men 2-0 at Wembley to book a place in the quarter-finals. Goals from Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane in the last 15 minutes did the job for the Three Lions in what was their first knockout victory at the European championships inside 90 minutes.

Gareth Southgate opted to match Germany and use a 3-4-3 system in this crunch encounter and play with an extra defender at the expense of Jack Grealish. While this system did do its job for the majority of the match, the German’s started on the front foot as England looked like a deer in the headlights in the opening 15 minutes. Declan Rice was lucky to escape with only a yellow card after bringing down Leon Goretzka on the edge of the box and Jordan Pickford made an excellent save to deny Timo Werner who was clean through on goal.

However, as the half wore on, England grew into the match with Bukayo Saka and Raheem Sterling causing the German back-three some problems with their pace and movement. Raheem Sterling had a long-range shot well saved by Manuel Neuer but the standout chance of the half fell to Harry Kane who took a heavy touch, allowing Mats Hummels to recover and clear the ball.

With both systems effectively cancelling each other out, it was a cagey affair for most of the second half until Gareth Southgate brought on Jack Grealish. The Aston Villa midfielder was involved in the build-up to the first goal, passing the ball to Luke Shaw who whipped in a threatening cross for England’s star man Raheem Sterling to put into the back of the net.

However, just a few minutes after the goal, Germany were presented with a glorious opportunity to equalise. Raheem Sterling’s backwards pass missed its intended target and allowed Thomas Muller to charge through on goal unopposed. Unfortunately for the Bayern Munich veteran, he couldn’t recreate his heroics from South Africa 2010 and his shot just trickled wide off the post, much to the relief of 45,000 England fans at Wembley.

With this golden chance gone to equalise gone, England rubbed salt in the wound moments later. Jack Grealish drifted into the left channel and played a delicate cross for Harry Kane to score his first goal of the tournament and send England through to the last 8. After all the heartache of the years gone by, England seized the moment and took their chances at Wembley to finally overcome their greatest rivals.

With this victory, Gareth Southgate’s men are faced with a golden opportunity to qualify for the finals as they take on Ukraine in the quarter-final in Rome on Saturday.