We dare to dream: one last obstacle on one hell of a journey

FROM a hostile shower of beery dregs and plastic cups to that familiar nation-sweeping wave of optimism and hope.

- Malik Ouzia

It’s taken a little longer this time around, but Gareth Southgate and his England have done it again, got us all talking of those years of hurt, got us dreaming once more.

Less than a fortnight ago, they were 90 seconds and a Jude Bellingham bicycle-kick away from villainy. Now they stand 90 minutes from glory for all time.

And by Monday morning, what will they be, this manager and his side? Legends to match Sir Alf Ramsey and his heroes of 1966 as the only men’s team to deliver major silverware to a proud, but underachieving, footballing nation? Or the nearly men, the loveable group that went close once, twice, three times in four tournaments, but never quite got over the line?

To couch their legacy in such binary terms might seem harsh, but so much has Southgate’s England achieved already that only victory over Spain in Berlin on Sunday can change it now.