Raheem Sterling hailed England’s superb collective display as they reached the European Championship quarterfinal with a 2-0 win over rivals Germany on Tuesday.
The Manchester City forward broke the deadlock in the 75th minute before captain Harry Kane made sure of victory 10 minutes later when he headed in substitute Jack Grealish’s cross, sparking wild celebrations at Wembley.
The victory was England’s first against Germany in a knockout round at a major tournament since the 1966 World Cup final.
“We knew we needed a big performance against a difficult side, and we did that today,” Sterling said. “Doing it for your country is always special. For half a second I thought let it (Sterling’s goal) not be offside, but I’m so happy it went in.
“We knew the intensity we could play at, not a lot of teams can deal with it.
“We kept going, (Declan) Rice and (Kalvin) Phillips, ate up ground and were animals in there. All-round, great team performance. We take it game by game, we go away, recover and get focused on the next one.”
England face either Sweden or Ukraine in the quarterfinals in Rome on Saturday.
England took the lead when Luke Shaw squared the ball from the left flank to find Sterling, who had started the move and finished it with a tap-in from the edge of the six-yard box as the home crowd erupted.
Kane scored the second when Grealish crossed and the England captain rushed in to beat goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and nod home.
Earlier, England keeper Jordan Pickford did well to keep out Timo Werner before tipping over a stinging volley from Kai Havertz. At the other end, Mats Hummels denied Kane with a last-ditch clearance just before halftime.
England will play either Sweden or Ukraine, who meet later on Tuesday in Glasgow in the final last-16 match.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 