A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

FROM BACK PAGE business. “Ramos is one of the best of all time,” said Dier. “He does everything so well but, at the same time, he puts his foot down and he’s not going to be bullied – we have to be the same way.”

Ramos is also a master of the darker arts and Dier and England showed they are becoming craftier with a secondhalf backs-to-the-wall display that featured no little time-wasting.

“I don’t really like this ‘streetwise’ thing really, it’s not my style,” he said.

“But it is just a question of being smart at the right times. It was frustrating Spain and the crowd.

“We have experienced that. It is just maturity really, knowing when to win fouls, when to take your time. We did those things well.”

Dier is not the type of character to get carried away with a landmark result and points out England should have made it a memorable double-header by beating Croatia last Friday. He said: some of the players it is a night they have to take forward with them. They caused huge problems to some very good players.

“It’s important they feel they can play against the top

the Munich reference and it is difficult for the players to fully understand what they have done because Spain had such a run without losing and had momentum. For teams.” The “Golden Generation” of David Beckham, Paul Scholes (left) and Michael Owen were beaten in the quarter-finals by Brazil, who beat Germany in the final. DOING THE DIRTY WORK Dier argues with Sergio Ramos after clattering the Spain star (above), while Winks also got stuck in