It’s Coming Home: The Blessing that turned into a Curse

It’s coming home. It’s coming home. It’s coming home. Everywhere you went, everyone you talked to, every English sports channel you watched, you could see these words being shoved in your face as

were unsurprisingly sure of themselves in winning Euro 2020.  We only had a glimpse of the arrogance in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, but it all got tuned up as England hosted most of their matches, which gave them an unfair home advantage.

But did these words uttered by the media and the fans have an effect on the England national team? Were the poor players just under so much pressure that they eventually crumbled? Even though Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho are two of England’s greatest talents and can score penalties in their sleep, they were the ones who missed the crucial penalty kicks and handed the victory and the Euro 2020 trophy to Italy in the final.

Was there just too much pressure on these young talents? Were these words circling their heads when they were trying to focus on taking a simple penalty kick? It might seem obvious to many that the “It’s coming home” phrase really did hurt England throughout the competition, even though it was also the driving fuel of the whole squad. Let us have a look at England’s journey in Euro 2020 and see how the team were affected by this phrase and how they played when England supporters wouldn’t cheer them on.

It’s coming home: England’s downfall

Cheering your favorite team is one thing. But pushing forward your team and putting quite a lot of pressure on them with a simple sentence is another thing. Here is how the pressure might have affected the Three Lions.

The Group Stage

England kicked off their Euro 2020 campaign with a narrow 1-0 win against

, during which Raheem Sterling scored his country’s only goal. But such a close call was not satisfactory enough for the overconfident fans of England, who had been chanting “It’s coming home” since before the tournament had even begun. This clutch victory caused some fans to doubt their national team and the Three Lions only made their doubts stronger with a disappointing 0-0 draw against

, who were obviously the underdogs of not only the match, but the group as well.

With only one shot on target during their match against Scotland, England fans became enraged with their national team’s performance, so much so that you could hear nothing about the cursed phrase. This short period of silence was the kick that the England squad needed as they went on to clutch a victory against

, with the single goal of the game coming from none other than Sterling himself.

Despite topping their group in the group stages, the campaign was considered to be a disaster for many, as they believed England could never have a chance of reaching the final.

The Knockout Stage

With England receiving much criticism in the group stages, they had to work a lot more on their performance, which led to them going strong in the knockout stage as they faced

in the Round of 16. Southgate’s men managed to dominate the game and pull off a historic 2-0 victory against their archrivals. This win played a pivotal part in England’s journey in Euro 2020 as their supporters gained back the confidence they needed to cheer their boys in the tournament. With the likes of Germany,

and

already out of the way, this confidence only grew stronger and you could “It’s coming home” everywhere you went.

Fueled by their newly found self-confidence and the motivation that the fans gave them, the Three Lions cut through the opposition in the quarterfinals with an emphatic 4-0 win against Ukraine and bested Denmark 2-1 in the semifinals to reach the final of Euro 2020, where they were destined to meet Italy.

The Final

Prior to the final showdown of the tournament, everyone was already familiar with the “It’s coming home” phrase as England supporters were sure that they were going to finally bring a major trophy back to home. While Gareth Southgate’s men had successfully beaten all their opponents, Italy were no ordinary opponents. Mancini and his squad had been flawless from the very beginning of the tournament, even though few could have thought they could be so formidable.

One could easily see the fear of losing in Southgate’s and his players’ eyes as they played it safe in the final. Some say it was too safe as they only had a total of six attempts compared to

’s nineteen, with only two of England’s attempts being on target compared to Italy’s six. Italy had double the possession, double the number of passes and triple the number of accurate shots. Even though it the game was only decided in the penalty shootouts, England played like the underdogs at home instead of pushing on for a victory that they could get with a little bit more effort.

In the end, however, the pressure proved to be too much and the England players crumbled under the weight of the “It’s coming home” sentence. We will have to wait and see if England supporters would eventually learn the lesson their players learned the hard way. Of course the Three Lions will never lose hope as they can easily roar once again. The only question is, will they be able to withstand the pressure in another major trophy?

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