England Football

England have their own history to deal with in Germany. The last time they played in a major tournament here, at the 2006 World Cup, their campaign became overwhelmed by the celebrity circus surrounding their wives and girlfriends at their base in Baden-Baden. They lost in the quarter-finals, their ceiling under Sven-Goran Eriksson. Wayne Rooney was sent off against Portugal in Gelsenkirchen, where England play their opening game of these European Championships against Serbia on Sunday. That World Cup represented a nadir in England's attempts to win their first major trophy since 1966. They had been blessed with a group of richly talented players and now that Golden Generation had had one last chance to make its mark and it had been wasted. And then there is England's history against the hosts of this tournament. It is not all bad. But after 1966, most of it is. The World Cup semi-final defeat to West Germany in Turin in 1990, the night of Gazza's tears and that cursed penalty shoot-out, is still a bitter memory. The heartbreak of losing to Germany on penalties at Euro 96, a defeat that brought down the curtain on an enchanted summer in England that had brought the country together, is still raw....read