Football might be coming home – but our history in the game isn’t as good as we often like to believe

England’s men have been to the semi-finals of a European Championship or World Cup five times – and only advanced once

So England is finally starting to expect. After the mild surprise at the relatively comfortable nature of the victory over Germany, the 4-0 win over Ukraine has the confidence flowing ahead of the semi-final with Denmark.

It is difficult not to get caught up in it – but, as ever during this tournament, Gareth Southgate has some words we should be listening to. “We don’t have as good a football history as we like to believe sometimes,” the England manager has said. “We have never been to a European Championship final so we can be the first England team to do that which is really exciting.”

England’s men have been to the semi-finals of a European Championship or World Cup five times and only advanced once. The collective trophy cabinet between England and Denmark stands at one World Cup and one European Championship. In the other semi-final between Italy and Spain it was five World Cups and four European Championships.

The Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel showed his clear disdain when being asked about how it would feel to stop “football coming home” during a press conference yesterday. “Has it ever been home... have you ever won it?” he said, to which the journalist asking the question said, “Well, in 1966 it was home.” Schmeichel then added: “Was that not the World Cup?” He has a point.

Southgate has spoken multiple times since the Ukraine game about England getting to three semi-finals in three years (the World Cup in 2018, the Uefa Nations League in 2019 and now Euro 2020 – forgiving the Covid-induced delay) and it is impressive, given England’s recent record before that. But it is still not the final step.

There have been a number of near-misses since 1966 (although not so many in the European Championships), but a lot of disappointment as well – missed tournaments in 1984 (the Euros), 1994 (the World Cup) and 2008 (the Euros), as well as poor performances in the Euros of 1988, 1992 and 2000. We often like to think of ourselves as one of the heavyweights of world football – but our record doesn’t always stand up to close scrutiny.

This England squad are looking to change that – and I hope they do. But Southgate is right in saying that “if we look beyond the next challenge, we are in trouble”. It is good to keep the players grounded, as we have come unstuck before. Southgate has no problem with the fans dreaming of what may be to come, but says that is not for the players yet.

I’m not looking to do England down here – this tournament has been great fun and if there is one thing we need after the last 16 months it is a bit of joy. But we need to be aware that the players are looking to do something that hasn’t been done by an England team before – win a European Championship. That is a fact, no matter how good we think we are.