Is it finally 'Coming Home?'

104' and Sterling goes down inside the penalty box! Penalty has been given away in England's favour. Skipper Kane steps up to take the penalty to put England up and into the finals. Kane misses ! What a save my Kasper Schmeichel but Kane scores on the rebound and England are up and going to the finals. It took a deflection from Simon Kjær and a controversial penalty to book England's spot in the finals of the Euros and end Denmark's fairy run in the worst possible way. 

The stage is all set for the mega showdown of the European Championship with England facing a 'new Italy' at home at Wembley with a whopping 60,000 fans present to witness the finale. England - one of the pre - tournament favourites finally delivered at the big stage and got all the way through to the finals unlike their previous golden generation comprising the likes of David Beckham, Paul Scholes , Frank Lampard , Rio Ferdinand , Steven Gerrard and the list goes on.

 Although England are stacked with talents up front in their captain and talisman Harry Kane along with Raheem Sterling who arguably is the best player for England throughout the tournament's , Bukayo Saka , Jack Grealish , Jadon Sancho , Phil Foden , Dominic Calvert Lewin. 

Seeing such names on paper would directly give the impression of playing 'beautiful attacking football' but Gareth Southgate has gone with a different approach to many people's not liking and English pundits , fans and media criticising for preferring to be conservative and defensive rather than going all out and attacking. In the group stages England weren't so impressive at all. They clearly lacked creativity in final third and there were holes for teams to exploit in England's tactics which the likes of Scotland , Croatia , Czech Republic couldn't exploit. As the tournament went on, England are in my opinion the most balanced side defensively and attackingly. They have the perfect balance as Thanos once said "Perfectly balanced as all things should be". Southgates tactics and approach paid off as forwards win you games but it's the defence which wins you the trophies.

Tactically on paper Southgate lines up in a      4-2-3-1 with his preferred personnel's being Pickford in goal Walker as right back Stones and Maguire as CBs and Luke Shaw who has had a stand out performance in last season with United and in the Euros placed on the left back. Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips playing as the two pivots who operate in a pulley system - one up one down and have excellent chemistry to pull it off.The attacking midfiled trio comprises of Mount as the 10 with Sterling on the left and on the right many players have been tried and tested but Saka is the one Southgate would prefer to start. And upfront the English captain Harry Kane. 

On the attack England commit a lot of bodies but make sure they are not open to counter attacks as the three centre backs with either of the two holding midfielder stays deep to protect the goal and Kyle Walker's pace makes sure they have number back in time and slow the counter so that the other players can fall back too and force the opposition to play the ball back. All teams have some or the other weakness in their tactics but England have bare minimum weakness and the way they manage those threats nullify chances of the opposition getting the upper hand over England. After 55 years of failure England are finally in a major tournament final with glory within a distance of a win. The last time England were in a final was in 1966 the year they went to win the World Cup only time in their history at Wembley. 

The 1966 World Cup was played in England and England have played 6/7 at Wembley with the finals too at Wembley England have the home advantage and draws certain parallels with '66. With the international success being a distant memory England will give their all to win the European Championship and finally try to 'Bring it Home'. 90 mins or possibly a 120 mins stand in the way of England from finally ending their drought. Is it finally coming home? Or will Mancini and co take it to Rome?