Actually, Gary Lineker should have foreseen the outcome. However, England’s most famous soccer player and former world-class forward could not resist the temptation to flirt with the elimination of this Euro Cup co-favorite on Wednesday night in the final phase of the match between Germany and Hungary: ” I “I’m going crazy! The Germans are ten minutes from home, I have to go home, “Lineker flirted on Twitter, regardless of the fact that the Germans were already home in Munich. At this time, they were 1: 2 behind as England designated opponents. for the round of 16, and instead would have been eliminated.

As if Lineker, 60, had summoned the bad ghosts of football with his short message, from which he did not want to wake up under any circumstances, Leon Goretzka made it 2-2 for the DFB-Elf – less than a minute after he Lineker would have sent his tweet. Due to the draw, there is now the big round of 16 at Wembley Stadium: England v Germany, four times world champions. “We know,” Lineker corrected himself immediately after the draw in Munich, “that the Germans always …”

Lineker deliberately left this sentence incomplete because it alluded to his cult saying, which has been cited for decades, that soccer is a simple game in which 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and ultimately “always win. Germans “. Lineker once said this legendary sentence of surrender after England’s semi-final defeat on penalties against eventual winner Germany at the 1990 World Cup. Meanwhile, the saying has become a manifesto, it belongs to football. like a ball and two goals.

Since Geoff Hurst’s controversial goal at Wembley, which led England to the only World Cup victory so far at home in 1966 in the final against Germany in extra time, Germany has played knockout matches at World Championships and Europe (1970, 1990, 1996, 2010) actually always prevailed against the homeland of football, once after overtime, twice after penalty shoot-out. The mass newspaper recalled these duels on Thursday Sun before the next new edition of the classic, with the decisive images of the game of yesteryear, including: the missed penalty shot by current England coach Gareth Southgate at the 1996 European Championship, the English proverb “For better or for worse “(for better or worse worse). Now is the time, the newspaper believes, to finally end the “Years of Tears.” On the current cover, the ball was already ready to be thrown at the penalty spot. The headline: “We’re ready! We still believe in it! Trained, penalties, men!” Of the Mirror writes: “Southgate can now get revenge for the heartbreak of Euro 1996.”

“Herr, let’s go again”

While the Telegraph The desire for revenge was already printed: “She with the Germans!” – Most other British media are more likely to fear another tragic bankruptcy: “Oh no! Not the Germans again!” The ultra-conservative newspaper complained. Daily mail. On the gossip sheet Fast He stood up: “Herr, let’s go again”, with the German greeting Herr, which should mean: “Here we are again.” The BBC broadcaster even entered the preliminary report in a somewhat fatalistic way: “It had to be this way, right?” Over the course of “two dizzying hours”, England went through four potential opponents (France, Portugal, Hungary, Germany) on the final day of the preliminary round, but in the end it was, of course, Germany.

On Tuesday, the BBC will broadcast the game exclusively on the island. The moderator is: Gary Lineker.