Euro 2020: Declan Rice says England created history after stunning Germany to reach the last eight

Declan Rice said England had created a ‘piece of history’ after finally beating Germany at a major tournament for the first time since 1966.

England are celebrating a mammoth victory against Germany at the Euros after goals from Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane fired Gareth Southgate’s men into the quarter-finals where they will face Ukraine.

For many English onlookers facing Die Mannschaft brought back painful memories, from the 1970 World Cup to the ghost goal in 2010 as well as the Italia 90 and Euro 96 semi-final shootout heartbreaks.

Tuesday 29 June

European Championship

8th Finals

Sweden

Ukraine

8th Finals

England

Germany

Monday 28 June

European Championship

8th Finals

France

Switzerland

8th Finals

Croatia

Spain

Sunday 27 June

European Championship

8th Finals

Belgium

Portugal

But England’s players showed few signs of anxiety, nerves or baggage in the build-up or on the pitch, heeding boss Southgate’s advice to write their own history under the Wembley arch.

And Rice insists they did exactly that, as they exorcised any demons that haunted generations of past England players – including their own manager.

‘It’s history,’ the midfielder told BBC Sport. ‘In the press conferences all week the players have been asked about the previous games against Germany and today we created our own piece of history.

‘We’ve made the most of our opportunity today and it was a pleasure to be out on the pitch.’

England’s past defeats against Die Mannschaft provided the pre-game narrative, including penalty shootout heartbreak at Euro 96 (left) and the ‘ghost goal’ in 2010 (right)

Rice said England’s players had been aware of the criticism they had received during the competition.

‘If you look at the group games, a lot of people had written us off, there had been complaints about the performances, not scoring enough goals,’ he told ITV.

‘You read a load of things, but as players you put that to the back of your mind and you want to prove people wrong and I think today, everyone had that fire in their belly to go out there and one, knock Germany out the tournament and two, for us, progress to the next round.’ 

Rice made sure to reiterate that England are only taking it one game at a time, but with just two games between them and a first tournament final in 55 years, he insists the team have the real belief that they can go all the way.

But Rice (left) insists he and his England team-mates have exorcised those demons at Wembley

Harry Kane (middle) and Raheem Sterling (left) both scored in the famous win over Germany

‘We don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves because Saturday’s a massive game as well now,’ the West Ham midfielder said.

‘We travel to Rome and we want to win that and progress into the semi-finals.

‘All I can say is about today, the occasion, fans, players, how we were up for it in the changing room. I’ve not been a part of a team with togetherness like this.

‘We’re all in it with each other and we really believe we’ve got the quality and we really believe with the tournament pretty much being at Wembley we can keep progressing.’