for England, fifty-five years of pain that continue

The hope of a nation that is shattering makes no noise. On leaving Wembley, the English crowd is silent. There is just the murmur of the city and a few well-found expletives. But for the rest, nothing. No conversation, faces closed and stares so lost. Nothing is going well in England: the Three Lions have lost their final of Euro 2021 football, the rain begins to pour down and the metro is experiencing serious hiccups, blocking the crowd in the downpour.

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One goal, however: to get out of there as quickly as possible, to forget the crazy hopes that were still intact a few moments earlier. No one wants to stay in the stadium to watch the trophy presentation and the celebrations.

England lost to Italy in the final Sunday 11 July, after leading in the score, then leading during the first shots on goal. For the first time in fifty-five years, victory was within reach, or rather crampon.

Mad hope across the country

All day long, the supporters sang their famous refrain: “Football is coming home” (“Football is coming home”). The last (and only) English victory was that of the World Cup in 1966. Since then, as the song says, English fans have known “Fifty years of pain”.

This will now continue. “Maybe we’re cursed and football will never come home”, exasperated Craig Burrows, 38. An Italian supporter stirs the knife in the wound, having fun singing at the top of his lungs, to the same tune: “Fifty-five more years of pain. “

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How to put words on this defeat? Many prefer to say nothing, sitting alone in a corner, the time to assimilate the shock. The others resort to bitter humor. “We start to believe it, we get excited and then, we remember that we support England”, explains, sarcastically, Andrew Mardon.

We blame the coach, who did not make the right changes, or who made them too late; or the pressure, which was too strong; or even the naivety of a still young team. But we should especially attack the crazy hope raised throughout this Sunday across England.

“We let ourselves be carried away”

By the end of the morning, the alcohol was flowing freely and the songs were resumed at full strength all over the country. By early afternoon, the floor of Piccadilly Circus was sticky with beer and the crowd drunk with dreams of victory. In front of Wembley, hours before kick-off, the 65,000 spectators and tens of thousands of others who came to the scene, drawn by the atmosphere, believed in triumph.

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