One way or another, football’s coming home in Euro 2024 final: Round about the capital of Germany, you can hear a famous supporters’ anthem sporadically break out. It’s a song most familiar for the refrain: “It’s coming home,” it goes, “it’s coming home – football’s coming home!”.
It has a catchy tune and wistful lyrics, first composed 28 years ago, when England hosted the European Championship and a pair of TV comedians combined with musicians for Three Lions, tapping into the longing of those who follow the English national team to replace decades of frustration with a single triumph in a major trophy.
The prize is still elusive, but closer on Sunday in Berlin, where England’s so-called Lions meet Spain in the Euro 2024 final, than it has been at any time except three summers ago when England reached the final of the last Euros, losing to Italy on penalties.
You may be interested to read: Belgium v Romania: Tielemans and De Bruyne strike in crucial victory at Euro 2024
That was at home, at Wembley in London. Victory on Sunday, in a foreign city, would give extra oomph to the idea of bringing “football home”.
The song, the chant, the claim of home-ownership over the world’s most popular sport sometimes irritates opposing players.
RelatedPosts
If England – or at least Britain – can lay some claim to inventing football under its current rules, and, in the shape of Premier League, England is certainly home to the most globally popular domestic league, there is a long list of European nations who can regard themselves as far truer homes for elite international success.
Spain would be among them: in this century alone, they have lifted two Euros titles, which is two more than England ever have.
But the past counts for only so much, except when history imposes a burden of expectation. The Three Lions song made a catchphrase of the line “30 years of hurt”, counting back the three decades between England’s 1966 World Cup triumph, at home and those 1996 Euros.
Source: msn news
