As the dark circles under the eyes of Chinese fans gradually fade away, the European Cup schedule is coming to an end. When there is only one game left in the 51 games, you finally feel that 3 o'clock in the morning is not too late, so you can tune in silently. Alarm clock, before charging the phone, I glanced at the matchups: On one side was Italy, which said "I'm weak but I can win", and on the other side was...England?

What about France, Germany and Portugal? What about the Netherlands and Belgium? Wasn’t there Spain a few days ago?

The England that comes to us this time is indeed heroic, with a unique style and a pure heart. Chinese fans call it the "European Chinese Team".

The Three Lions are not convinced that a former world champion who has only missed one European Cup in the past 30 years is called the "European Chinese team". After all, the Chinese team has only entered the World Cup once in modern times. ; It is only because the two teams hold the title of the ancestors of Cuju at home and abroad, and they are both guilty of seeing "a draw will qualify", that this sentence is confirmed.

In fact, apart from winning the World Cup on home soil in 1966, England really doesn't have many impressive results. The European Cup has gone through a series. They have participated in 9 of the past 15 competitions. They have never won within 90 minutes in the knockout stage. Their best results were the third place in 1968 and the semi-finals in 1996 on home soil. France, Italy, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands, which have also participated in the 9th edition, all have at least one championship, while Spain, the 10th dynasty veteran, and Germany, the 12th dynasty super veteran, have three championships each.

Let’s put it this way, among the teams that have participated in more than half of the European Cup’s history, only England has not won the championship.

In fact, this is their first time in the finals.

(Denmark won the miraculous championship in 1992)

However, the presence of the England team has always been strong.

Especially since the 1990s, whenever young people in England gather in the national team, they always have to do some big work. For example, but not limited to: the good girl who the newly promoted national football team met for the first time when they stayed overnight during the game day, the popular star took laughing gas to play happy football, the iron-blooded captain shocked the wife of his friend, and the veteran head coach was suspected of power-money transactions...

Of course, this lust is not the main reason why we take a second look at them. What is more important is the origin of this lust - 1992, the first year of the Premier League.

Premier League

Yes, if there are no Chelsea players in your team in this competition, you will not reach the semi-finals. Even if there is only one former Chelsea player as the head coach, it is enough for Ukraine, which has the worst qualifying performance in the group, to advance to the quarterfinals.

According to this standard, Southgate has a "blue-collar" temperament from the player selection stage: the personnel reserves are so abundant that at the explosive right back position, Reece James, who has the least qualifications, is almost certain to be the first one. Selected, at the beginning of the group stage, it was established that "Mount can never go to Foden", "no matter how handsome No. 7 is, he will never go to Grealish", "Mount's good striker Rice is indispensable" Waiting for a series of major policies... And 24 of the team's 26-man roster are from the Premier League, so much so that Sancho, who is worth 85 million, could only get a first-class starting opportunity after moving to the Premier League.

Once upon a time, the Premier League gradually became the eye-catching king of Europe’s top leagues through the technological poverty alleviation of generations of elite coaches and players from the European continent; now, one blue team supplies the whole of Europe, and this glorious international footballer On behalf of the Premier League, the Porters reported a prosperous return to the whole of Europe!

In the top 16 of this competition, each team has players playing in the Premier League. In other words, throughout the knockout stage, no matter which team they support, Premier League fans can always see their favorite star club teammates or league opponents on the field. If England participates in the game, it will feel like a Premier League All-Star Game with randomly divided teams.

Thanks to the Premier League, the England team always makes fans’ eyes shine.

Golden Generation

In many cases, stars can determine the outcome of a game, and the generation of stars that emerge in clusters often determines the upper limit of the national team's performance.

Figo Rui Costa and Ronaldinho, Spain won three consecutive championships, the Netherlands, the flying uncrowned king, Yugoslavia, and Croatia in the French Summer of 1998.

The situation of the England team is different from everyone else. They belong to the golden iteration. They are either K gold or gold-plated, or an alloy made of talent and iron blood. In short, they make a lot of money, but they are always golden from generation to generation. It's yellow.

Since ancient times, heroes have emerged from youth. They once had Michael Owen, who was born out of nowhere, and after Owen, Rooney; There is also Tony Adams standing in front of him; if you want to say "You can't win anything with old people and children", then Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Ferdinand, Terry, Ashley Coe in their peak period. Er, plus the mature Rooney and Irving before the cruciate ligament overhaul, they are all on the same team...

That must be a problem with the coach?

Perhaps Sir Robson is a little older, but the local Allardyce and Hodgson are also powerful coaches. The external Eriksson smiled and said nothing, and Capello said that I There are not many times when the team fails to win a championship...

The adult team has been struggling like this for more than 20 years, and the golden iterations have survived until the age of retirement, but the England youth team in 2017 Won the U20 and U17 World Cup championships one after another.

Perhaps the older brothers of the adult team feel that they cannot lose face in front of their younger brothers. In the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Southgate, who was not expected to lead the Three Lions with dim stars, finally got rid of the spotlight. Getting rid of the pressure and constraints of the world, relying on an efficient three-center-back tactic to reach the semi-finals, while eliminating two embarrassing records:

1. The team has never won a World Cup penalty shootout

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2. Five consecutive losses in penalty shootouts in international A-level events

(In the 1996 European Cup between England and Germany, Southgate became the sinner in the penalty shootout)

< p> At the same time, Harry Kane became the second Englishman to win the World Cup Golden Boot after Lineker. "Happy Football" was officially named and established on the stage of the World Series. The England team, which had lost its reputation of glitz and gold, finally Closer to the Golden Cup.

Perhaps there has never been a golden generation, but every generation is waiting for a golden age.

Football goes home

Going home, this tender image, means cruel elimination in football competitions.

As the place of origin, England has in recent years used "Football Come Home" as a slogan to inspire them to bring home the championship (from the lyrics "football is" in the 1996 England European Cup song "Three Lions"). coming home").

In this cup, they scored 4 points in the first two rounds of the group stage. In the last round, they faced the Czech team led by the Hammer Brothers. The England team faced the choice of "take first or second". If you qualify first, you will face France, Germany and Portugal, a team of death, but if you are strategically ranked second, you can avoid their sharp edge. In the end, inspired by the slogan "Football Goes Home", the Three Lions fought bravely and successfully won the 1/8 finals ticket at Wembley Stadium, which means that no matter how powerful the opponent is, they cannot stop the way home. .

In the preparation meeting for the 1/8 finals against the old enemy Germany, "Winning the game without triggering VAR and vindicating Lampard's 2010 goal-line injustice" became the only theme. In the end, the Three Lions won by two goals with a clean sheet, precise and shrewd; the happy gene was implanted into the second child and sent to Germany to realize cultural dissemination; he paid tribute to Loew in a revengeful way, showing his gentlemanly demeanor (manual dog head ).

Then the team successfully returned home from Rome. The England team had prepared a No. 10 jersey with ERIKSEN's name printed on it. They wished him happiness and were passing it to the team to sign.

Eriksson, who suffered an accident in the first game, became the spiritual leader of the Danish team, and his role was even greater than his role as the core midfielder on the court. The team miraculously finished second with 3 points in the group stage. In the 1/8 finals, the biggest score difference of this knockout round was 4-0. They defeated the Czech Republic in the 1/4 finals. The Danish team met the Czech Republic twice in the European Cup before, and the Danish team lost both times. ...

Southgate was thoughtful. He opened a "Team History" and it read clearly, "1992, in a bitter cold place, with the host, Dan was in the same group, and the team died... ... Dan actually ranks first... it is a miracle in history."

"Football comes home", the feeling is that no matter whether we win the championship or not, we should first take advantage of "this is my property if others take it".

(Schmeichel Jr.: You always say football comes home? But has it ever come home?)

It is recommended that the Chinese team copy it directly.

Conclusion

They never lack stories, but the ones written in them are full of regrets. They also never lack geniuses, and the ending is always jealous of talents...

After 55 years, England reached the final of a major competition again. 55 years ago, they won a world championship.

In three days, can England fulfill their influence in world football, bring football home, and let the trophy come home?