They may be world champions – or Weltmeisters, as they like to call themselves – but Germany faced up to a harsh truth on Monday evening: The future of world football belongs to England.
You might feel we’re getting a little carried away, but how else are we supposed to react to England Under-21’s brilliant 3-2 fightback victory at the Riverside Stadium?
After the seniors failed to win a single game in Brazil, and scored only two goals in their three matches, this crack of light at the end of the tunnel is manna from heaven.
Germany twice took the lead through a Philipp Hoffman brace that sandwiched a strike from Jesse Lingard, but England kept pushing to get back into the game in front of their home fans.
They were eventually awarded ten minutes from time, when Nathan Redmond fired home before James Ward-Prowse ensured another decade of false hope with the winner.
“How do I keep a check on expectations?” asked manager Gareth Southgate afterwards.
“That’s easy. I’ll just show people the first 25 minutes of this game. We have tremendous belief in this group of players and some elements of what they did really pleased me. Other aspects showed we can definitely improve.”
Already better than Germany and they can still improve…wow.
Watch all the goals as England U21 twice come from behind to beat Germany 3-2. http://t.co/N3LRspkF5W
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) March 31, 2015
