England achieved something David Beckham’s generation never managed – they reached the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Harry Maguire and Dele Alli scored with headers in a 2-0 win over Sweden on Saturday, earning England’s youthful team a match against either Croatia or host nation Russia for a place in the final on 15 July.
England’s fairly muted celebrations reflected the routine nature of the victory over a hard-working Swedish side that had already gone further than expected in their first major tournament without Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
England’s deep run also is a surprise. The England side containing stars like Beckham, Steven Gerrard and a young Wayne Rooney couldn’t get this far at a major tournament.
The 1966 World Cup champions last reached the semi-finals in 1990, losing the first of a series of haunting penalty shootouts. In 2014, the team didn’t even make it out of the group stage.
Here’s how Twitterati reacted to England’s historic victory.
Right I’m all in . It’s coming home
— Peter Crouch (@petercrouch) July 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/dawnie173/status/1015632788773629956
What’s worse than a wedding on the same day as a college football game in America? A wedding in England on the day of a World Cup quarterfinal. Don’t worry, they made up for it (📷 by @CoachChay) pic.twitter.com/4OTkQa0aCI
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 7, 2018
When you can’t get “it’s coming home” theme tune out your head pic.twitter.com/RisR1wPL31
— Kyle Walker (@kylewalker2) July 7, 2018