MORNING EUROS FANS
England hero Raheem Sterling says sinking Croatia was like scoring in his back garden.
The Three Lions won a Euro opener for the first time in ten attempts – while Sterling defied his indifferent season for Manchester City with his first goal in a major finals.
The livewire striker, who topped the billing along with all-round midfield star Kalvin Phillips, said: “It’s a great feeling for me, playing at Wembley, it’s not far from where I grew up and seeing the stadium being built.“I’ve always said if I played at Wembley at a major tournament then I’m scoring, at Wembley, my back garden, I have to score. It’s great to finally do that.
“It’s great to break the duck…We dug deep as a team and kept that clean sheet in the end as well.”
And boss Gareth Southgate enthused: “It’s a lovely day for the English public.
“We’ve waited a long time for the beer gardens to open and I’m sure they’re throwing it everywhere as well as drinking it which is lovely.”
Now this afternoon Scotland aim to make it a full house of unbeaten Euro 2020 openers for Britain, Wales having drawn with Switzerland on Saturday.
The Scots face the Czech Republic at 2pm, ahead of Poland meeting Slovakia and fancied Spain taking on Sweden.
In yesterday’s other action, Holland beat Ukraine 3-2, the previously-wasteful Denzel Dumfries heading a late winner after his Dutch side surrendered a 2-0 lead.
And subs Marko Arnautovic and Michael Gregoritsch struck late on to give Austria their first ever Euro finals win, 3-1 over tournament debutants North Macedonia.
