England can continue to dream of crowning their titles at London’s Wembley Stadium. Led by captain Harry Kane, the Three Lions stormed against an overwhelmed Ukraine 4-0 (1-0) in their first European Championship semi-final in 25 years.
In front of around 11,880 spectators in Rome, coach Gareth Southgate’s team earned the victory primarily with a strong second half and ended the European Championship fairy tale of the surprise team Ukraine. England will play against Denmark in the semi-finals at Wembley on Wednesday for the chance of their first major football title since the 1966 World Cup triumph.
Four days after the 2-0 win in the round of 16 against Germany, captain Kane scored the goals for the English with a brace (4th / 50th minute), defensive boss Harry Maguire (46th) and the recently substituted Jordan Henderson (63rd) especially in the second half were convincing offensively.
Before the break, after the early lead, the favorite had mainly limited itself to defending and was the only team to remain without conceding a goal in the fifth European Championship game. There was far too little from Andrei Shevchenko’s Ukraine for the next surprise at this European Championship and the very first semi-final at a major tournament.
© SZ / dpa / sid / ebc
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