Echoes of 1966 as England throw off past burden in renewal of hope

connections with football are only now being understood. There have been times when the triumph of ’66 must have felt a burden to the last of Sir Alf Ramsey’s men. Yet the charm of having them here was that they created a mood, a good feeling, part retrograde but also forward looking, to Euro 2020, for which England qualified with a crushing win.

Next summer’s European Championship will feel a bit like Euro 96 or indeed 1966, because at least two of England’s group games are here at Wembley, a corrugated cauldron in Hurst’s day but now an entertainment complex in a mini-city. England have not been good at keeping the family together. They have been too slow to treat previous generations as part of the story: a failing that was partly corrected by the Football Association’s commendable handling of this landmark.

One symbol of that new connectedness was Hurst and Paul Gascoigne sharing a table.

News management was surely at play in the presentation of Sterling’s silver plate to him before the game. He looked a touch embarrassed. Elsewhere players we still think of as young appeared like statesmen in dark overcoats. Wayne Rooney, especially, looked like one of England’s trustees as he mingled on the pitch at half-time with other recipients of the gleaming silver plates which bear their “legacy numbers” from some fairly barren years.

England are now World Cup semi-finalists who will enjoy a large measure of home advantage at Euro 2020. The renewal of hope is fair and true. England will be one of the market leaders next summer and can fancy their chances of burying a few bad memories. The Euro 96 semi-final against Germany here is one.

Hurst picked out the 1990 and 1996 England sides as ones who he thought capable of winning trophies. “I thought the 1996 Euro team was very good and was very close,” he said.

“If we had done that we wouldn’t be talking about the only time we did something. I was very sad when that ball flashed across and Gazza just missed it.”

Memories and near-misses. England have had to survive on a stack of those.

Yet there was nothing maudlin about this special gathering. Somehow they gave it the hum of a celebration but also of a new start. England fielded their youngest starting XI since 1959 as Southgate, whose 40th game in charge this was, continued to refresh and renew. If parts of the day were cast in sepia, this squad wear a dazzling sheen of youth.

It took 147 years to reach 1,000 games, and George Cohen played in 37 of them.

There was nothing maudlin about this special gathering – they gave it the hum of a new start

Described by George Best as the “best right-back in the world”, Cohen, now 80, can barely remember his England debut but has no trouble recalling the World Cup zenith. He was joined by members of his family at a venue that has defined his life for 53 years. “Jimmy Armfield got injured and Alf came up to me and said – just play your normal game,” Cohen recalled of his first game, against Uruguay. “I said – if that’s what you want me to do, I don’t mind that so much.”

All of the 1966 team have been asked on every occasion what went wrong subsequently. Each has learnt the diplomacy that comes with not wanting to brag. “As time went on you felt we were going to win it [the World Cup, again],” Cohen says. “We didn’t seem to be able to put together a team that was going to gel.

“It needs to be there for a longer time. It didn’t happen. It didn’t feel right, and it’s got to feel right.

“There have been some good times in there, as you’d expect, but I like to win competitions.

“The last World Cup, well,

I didn’t think we would win it.

“As we were going on I thought – we don’t have quite enough here. But they’re all very, very willing, there’s no doubt about that.”

You can tell they all respect Southgate. “I’ve spoken to a couple of players after recent games and they’re very complimentary, without being prompted,” Hurst said.

This thumping 7-0 win over minor opposition opened the gate to the next thousand games (climate change permitting) with the public offered a sharper sense of what it means to play football for England, and how 1,244 lives are connected. When Hurst was asked whether he wanted to attend, he said: “Pardon? Are you serious?” They are all in this together.