A few minutes before kick-off it looked bad in front of the stadium, what it looks like when the party is over. Beer cans, bottles, soaked paper flags and other rubbish, the occasional staggering Englishman, some took photos of the police on-board squadron on the edge of the avenue leading to Wembley Stadium, which now had nothing more to do. It was always like that when England and Germany played against each other, the days and hours up to kick-off were exciting, charged, then the game began, and at the latest 120 minutes and a penalty shoot-out later there was nothing for England to celebrate. So this time they celebrated beforehand like this was the World Cup final, at the stadium, in the pubs and around, in London, Newcastle, Birmingham and elsewhere. Then the game began, and 94 minutes later the party really got going.
“Beer we come,” he said Daily Mirror the day after, the English mood with a particularly creative play on words, the Sun claims to have found out that the evening when England won a major tournament against Germany for the first time in 55 years, 20 million pints of beer were consumed, which seems quite believable. The government had asked employers for some flexibility, the game started at 5 p.m. UK time, so people had to stop working earlier, which worked out pretty well. The fact that there is also this thing with the virus here was hardly noticeable before, during and after the game.
The newspapers quoted many fans from all of the public viewing events in the country on Wednesday to give additional votes to the ecstasy. “It’s so fantastic,” said one, “it’s unbelievable,” said another, “it’s the best day of my life,” said several. The stadium officially had 42,000 spectators, but Wembley didn’t look or sound like half full. It must even be said that it felt different, and not in an emotional way, but in concrete terms: When Harry Kane scored the 2-0, the crowd had a hard time not spilling beer with all the hopping and hugging, which is why To be on the safe side, some of them distributed their cups to the stands below.
Even during the game there is deafening singing at Wembley
In the midst of all the bliss, if that is possible for someone of his rank, was also the President of the English Football Association, Prince William, with his wife Kate and son George. The seven-year-old young prince wore a dark suit and the official tie of the FA, and of course his presence delighted not only the other guests in the gallery, such as David Beckham or Ed Sheeran, but the whole nation. No newspaper, no website, no TV station could do without numerous George impressions on Wednesday. George, how he claps, George, how he stands a little unsettled between his exuberantly cheering father and his discreetly applauding mother, but above all George, how he laughs. It was his first visit to the stadium, father William is a supporter of Aston Villa, it will be difficult for him to offer the boy a similar football experience again.
Even during the game, Wembley sang “Football’s coming home” in a deafening manner, but also the hymn, “God save the Queen”, after the game the 42,000 expressed their enthusiasm by singing “Sweet Caroline” in a loop, as loud as they could, which sounds all the better if, like practically all viewers, you don’t wear a mouth guard.
22 million pints of beer, actually? Not excluded. England’s fans celebrate in Trafalgar Square.
(Photo: Tolga Akmen / AFP)
Boris Johnson also followed the game, of course, and on Tuesday evening photos went around the world of the Prime Minister standing in front of a big television, cheering, arms outstretched, as was Harry Kane, including an editor of the Daily Mail the description “Kane and able” came to mind. The criticism from abroad for allowing such a game in view of the many corona cases was rejected by Johnson in the days before. Events like this round of 16 run as a research project in England, scientists collect data on whether mass gatherings have an effect on the number of infected and seriously ill; Exit open.
Research projects are only of peripheral interest to football fans, the first of which started planning on Tuesday evening how they could now visit the quarter-finals in Rome. The quarantine regulations in Italy and also in England make it a little complicated, but the good thing is: the semifinals and finals are back at Wembley.