[title]
For just one month, all the divisions and bickering and political shenanigans of this ludicrous little damp island were forgotten. For just one month, we were a heaving mass of joy, sunshine, beer and unity. For just one month, millions of people truly believed that football was coming home. And even if they didn’t actually believe it, they sure had a good time saying it over and over and over. Looking back, the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and the nearly glorious trajectory of our brave boys in white, seems like the only all-too-brief moment of euphoria we’ve had in the past few years. Who cares if England didn’t win (okay, I do), we still got to chuck beer about in pubs and parks and hug strangers while singing a song about half a century of pain. And it was great. Despite everything that’s happened, we all still know the truth: it really is coming home.
In numbers
30,000
The number of fans who attended a screening of England v Croatia in Hyde Park. It was the biggest London screening of a football match since Euro 96.
More than 1 million
The number of times ‘Three Lions’ was streamed on Spotify on the day of the England v Sweden match.