Truly, a nation hopes

England have been in three World Cup semifinals. Twenty-four years passed between the first at Wembley against Portugal in 1966, and the second in Italy in 1990. A further 28 years have gone by since the fateful penalty shoot-out in Turin won by West Germany, who went on to win the tournament. In 1990, tonight’s opponents Croatia did not even exist as an independent nation; the worldwide web had only been invented the previous year; Facebook was not even a glint in six-year-old Mark Zuckerberg’s eye; and Margaret Thatcher was prime minister. While England did make the semi-final of Euro 96, this is the team’s most important game since 1990. A nation hopes the outcome is the same as in 1966 – both tonight and in the final on Sunday. It has been a long time to wait for another shot at glory.