England take on Germany in crunch last-16 Euro 2020 tie

England fans will be hoping their team can banish the demons of tournaments past as they take on Germany in their last-16 clash of Euro 2020.

The old rivals are meeting for the first time in a competitive game since the 2010 World Cup, where England were soundly beaten 4-1.

Around 40,000 fans are expected to pack into Wembley for the 5pm kick-off, with a place in the quarter finals up for grabs.

Captain Harry Kane believes England supporters would be happy to see the Three Lions win every game on penalties if it led to Euro 2020 glory, as he called on his team-mates to “break the mould” against Germany.

There has been plenty of negative discussion surrounding England’s group-stage displays, despite the fact they progressed with two wins and a draw.

Czech Republic's Tomas Soucek (left) and England's Luke Shaw battle for the ball during the UEFA Euro 2020 Group D match at Wembley Stadium, London. Picture date: Tuesday June 22, 2021.
Nick Potts

Kane has yet to find the back of the net, with Raheem Sterling scoring the only two goals England managed in Group D. There have been more entertaining teams so far at the Euros, with Spain’s 5-3 extra-time win over Croatia on Monday evening among the highlights.

But Kane feels there would be no complaints if England went the whole way to the Wembley final on July with a string of pragmatic performances.

“I don’t think there’ll be any England fan disappointed if we end up winning every game 1-0 or winning every game on penalties without scoring another goal and we ended up lifting the trophy in a couple of weeks,” he said.

“We want to win games, of course, we’d love to play amazing football and then win every game scoring three or four goals – but we know that’s not always (going to be) the case.

“It’s been great that we’ve kept three clean sheets, that’s great for the whole team in general, to have that going forward because we’re going to need to continue that if we want to go all the way.

“Obviously a different opposition poses a different threat, different strengths and weaknesses, and hopefully we can go out there and exploit a few of theirs – and if we can score a few goals, then great.”

England's Raheem Sterling (centre) celebrates scoring their side's first goal of the game with Kyle Walker (left), Harry Kane and Declan Rice (right) during the UEFA Euro 2020 Group D match at Wembley Stadium, London. Picture date: Tuesday June 22, 2021.
Mike Egerton

Much has been made of the clash with Germany, 25 years on from the semi-final Wembley meeting at Euro 96 which the visitors won on penalties.

Current England boss Gareth Southgate missed the deciding spot-kick that night but Kane admits most of the current squad are too young to recall the incident and that it will hold no sway this time around.

“I’ll be totally honest, the majority of players don’t remember that game,” he told talkSPORT. “A lot of them weren’t born, I think I was only three years old, of course you see highlights and stuff like that but the bottom line is we’ve moved on, we’re a different team, a different squad.

“We’ve won penalty shoot-outs the last three, four years so the most important thing from our point of view is that we’re trying to get the job done in 90 minutes and if called upon we’ll be ready to do whatever it takes.”

Kane also insists beating Germany takes precedence over his own goalscoring ambition. “I’ve always said as a striker you go through spells – good spells and sometimes spells that just don’t quite go your way,” he added.

“The most important thing for me is that we’re winning games. The first objective was to qualify, which we’ve done. The second is to now try and reach the quarter-finals, so whether I’m scoring (or not) the most important (thing) is that we’re winning.

“That’s all I’m focused on tomorrow night, that’s all the team are focused on, however we get it done. That’s our main objective, and we’ll do everything in our power to get through.”

It was the previous game at Euro 96 – a penalty shoot-out win over Spain – which remains England’s last knockout victory at the European Championship. Germany, meanwhile, have won the Euros on three occasions and reached the final another three times and now Kane wants to see England begin a new history by eliminating Joachim Low’s men.

“German teams in general seem to go far in a lot of tournaments,” he added.

“We need to try to break that mould from our point of view. Our history isn’t as good. I think we’ve only won one knockout game in 50 years or so in this competition.

“It’s a challenge for us as players to write our own history and put a marker down hopefully for the rest of the tournament.”