England 2-0 Germany: 5 talking points and the Three Lions claim impressive knockout stage victory over Germany to book a place in the quarter-finals | Euro 2020
Germany became the latest high-profile nation to crash out of Euro 2020 after suffering a 2-0 defeat at the hands of England in their knockout stage clash on Tuesday.
The Germans headed into the game following a poor group stage performance, where they managed just one victory from their three games. They finished second with four points in Group F, tied with Portugal. Meanwhile, England finished at the summit of Group D after picking up two wins and one draw from their three group games.
The first half ended goalless with little or no action as both sides opted for a safety-first approach
However, the game sparked to life in the 75th minute. Raheem Sterling pounced on a low cross from Manchester United full-back Luke Shaw after a neat exchange of passes to open the scoring for England.
Shortly after, Germany had a glorious chance of their own which Thomas Muller squandered. The Bayern Munich man raced past the England defence, but dragged his shot wide when he was one-on-one with Jordan Pickford.
Die Mannschaft were made to pay almost instantly. Tottenham star Harry Kane doubled England’s lead by heading home substitute Jack Grealish’s cross to dash the hopes of the Germans once and for all.
England will now take on Ukraine on July 3 for a place in the Euro 2020 semi-finals. On that note, we look at five talking points from the game.
#5 Germany bow out after unconvincing run at the tournament
Since their World Cup triumph in 2014, Die Mannschaft have been largely disappointing in major tournaments and Euro 2020 was no different.
With the exception of their 4-2 victory over Portugal, the Germans were lackluster in their other matches at Euro 2020. They were also on the brink of elimination in their final Group F encounter against Hungary.
Joachim Low’s men followed that up with another average performance at Wembley against the Three Lions, who capitalized with aplomb.
With Hansi Flick set to replace the departing Low, Germany must go back to the drawing board in order to avoid another underwhelming outing in next year’s World Cup.
#4 Gareth Southgate spot on with his England team selection
England’s lineup was met with great criticism after Gareth Southgate opted to drop big-name players like Mason Mount, Ben Chilwell and Jadon Sancho. The Borussia Dortmund forward failed to make the starting XI for the fourth game running and has registered just 10 minutes of action so far in the tournament.
However, his decision to switch to a three-man defense to match the Germans’ shape paid off brilliantly. England expertly nullified their opposition's attacking threat before running two goals up.
Going forward, the Three Lions boss has proven that he deserves to be given the benefit of the doubt regarding his team selection. The focus will now be to better his side’s fourth-placed finish at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.