After a close, tense tussle with Denmark, England are into their first major men’s tournament final since 1966
At 10.11pm on a cool Wednesday night at a febrile, fevered Wembley Stadium, Harry Kane stepped forward. It had been a tightly-knotted, impossibly close semi-final: the kind where the tension winds itself around your guts like a sickness, where the picture seems to blur a little at the edges, where everything feels real and not real at once. England and Denmark were locked at one-all. Thirteen minutes into extra time, Kane had the key.
Kane stepped up to take his penalty: sturdily, not confidently, almost as if the baggage of 55 years was tethered to him as he ran. The penalty was saved by Kasper Schmeichel but ran free; Kane buried the rebound, and in that moment England were coming home. For the first time in men’s football, they are European Championship finalists; their game against Italy at Wembley on Sunday evening certain to be one of this country’s biggest ever sporting occasions.
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