The sound was deafening at the Wembley stadium when Harry Kane netted the second England goal late as the Three Lions fans cheered and let out a sigh of relief. England fans and football news media are an optimistic lot, their faith in the team’s ability is probably unparalleled despite the national side poorly repaying the support over the years. ‘It’s coming home’ is a theme echoing around England at the moment, and why should it not? Gareth Southgate’s men have displayed a clinical performance against the mighty Germany, who admittedly have never looked at their best since the last few years. However, if there is one side that should not be underestimated, it’s Germany and as Gary Lineker once said, “Football is a simple game: 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and, in the end, the Germans always win” but in a tournament of unexpected results, England defeating Germany isn’t a big one.

Both teams employed a cautious approach from the get go, with the German midfield looking more threatening at the onset of the match. While England were enjoying the home advantage, Gareth Southgate set up his side defensively, a tactic that has worked for him so far as the Three Lions have yet to concede a goal in the tournament. However, for most of the game it looked like the England set up was toothless, as a largely anonymous Harry Kane was nullified by the experienced German defender Mats Hummels. Aside from a few moments of goalscoring opportunities, the two sides failed to test each other for most of the game, despite England’s ultra strong bench consisting of Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, Jack Grealish to name a few

The tide turned when Southgate decided to introduce Aston Villa’s midfielder Jack Grealish in the 69th minute. As expected, the impact was instant and six minutes later his pass to Luke Shaw resulted in a sweeping cross in the face of the goal for Raheem Sterling to score. If that wasn’t enough, Grealish was directly involved in England’s second goal when the Englishman crossed the ball into Harry Kane’s path who redeemed his anonymous performance with a headed goal. For Germany, it’s the end of an era as manager Joachim Low failed to set his side up to threaten England in his final match for the national team. The team had a poor attacking set up with Serge Gnabry and Jamal Musiala failing to feature in the starting line up, instead Timo Werner, who has been less than impressive so far featured alongside Thomas Muller and Kai Havertz. To make matters worse, Thomas Muller missed a clear opportunity when Germany were trailing by one goal, a fair reflection of the performance overall.

Questions will be raised about some of the decisions Joachim Low made during the England match, as he failed to bring on Jamal Musiala (who scored against Hungary) when it really mattered or Kevin Volland. His managerial career has certainly had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, from winning the 2014 World Cup to not make it past the group stage in the 2018 World Cup in Russia and now eliminated by England in the Euro 2020 Round of 16. It's fair to say that Germany are no longer a force to be reckoned with, and fans would hope that Hansi Flick can overturn the national team's fortunes to bring back the glory days.