London (AFP)

Led, jostled but determined, England relied on its captain Harry Kane and his noisy supporters to dismiss the valiant Denmark in extra time (2-1), Wednesday in London, and finally play a long-awaited first final at the Euro, Sunday against Italy.

In the "land of football", the English are not yet kings but they finally get their ticket to the final of a major international tournament, fifty-five years after the first and last!

It was at the World Cup-1966, won against West Germany (4-2 ap), at Wembley, already.

Half a century later, in the supercharged atmosphere of her sacred temple, the selection of the "Three Lions" showed that she had sufficient strength, nerves, resources and appetite to finally ascend the throne: it will however have to swallow a large piece, the "Nazionale" returned to its best level, to furnish a trophy cabinet which is seriously collecting dust.

After two goals scored in the first period, by Mikkel Damsgaard (30th) and Simon Kjaer against his camp (39th), the epilogue of the intense and vibrant summit on Wednesday was written on a goal by the master artificer "HurriKane" (104th) , in two stages on a penalty first rejected by the excellent Kasper Scheichmel.

The 50,000 English fans exulted, jumped, danced, shouted their lungs on their classics "Sweet Caroline", "It's Coming Home" and "Freed from Desire", as if freed by the weight of endless waiting.

- Sparkling Schmeichel -

The pressure was however everywhere on Wednesday in London: in the pints that the supporters took down during the day, but especially on the shoulders of Jordan Pickford, Raheem Sterling and Kane, hoped successors of Gordon Banks, Bobby Charlton and Geoff Hurst, the heroes of 1966.

And the new generation held on!

For once, she managed to get around the pitfall of the semi-finals on which her elders stumbled for a long time in the World Cup (1990 and 2018), at the Euro (1968 and 1996) or in the League of nations (2019).

The title dream is now within firing range!

Coach Gareth Southgate, author of the missed goal at Wembley (again) in the Euro-1996 semi-final against Germany (1-1, 5-6 tab), was right to maintain his confidence until 'in overtime to his attack blasters, Kane and Raheem Sterling: it was the latter who made a stunning slalom to provoke the penalty that the first transformed, on the lookout after the stop of Schmeichel.

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For the Danish goalkeeper from Leicester, the beautiful story ends painfully at the gates of the final, at the end of an incredible journey marked by the cardiac arrest of his teammate Christian Eriksen, followed by two opening defeats then erased at strength of courage, solidarity and a seductive game.

- Cold -

Kasper will not follow in the footsteps of his father Peter, leader of the "Danish Dynamite" which won Euro-1992 to everyone's surprise, but no one will blame him among the less than 6 million inhabitants who inhabit the region. small Nordic country.

He indeed offered a recital with decisive parries in front of Sterling (38th), on a header from Harry Maguire (55th), a center-shot from Mason Mount (73rd), a foray from Kane (94th) or even a dry strike. by Jack Grealish (98th).

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Uncomplicated, disciplined if not creative, the Danes threw a chill after thirty minutes when the unbearable Mikkel Damsgaard, rising star of the Red and White at 21, delivered a direct free kick that Pickford did not even manage. to touch (30th).

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Five minutes earlier, the Everton goalkeeper had just blown a half-century old record on Gordon Banks: the last bulwark of the 1966 world champions had not conceded a goal for 720 minutes, a mark that none another English goalkeeper had not cleared since.

The 8,000 or so Danish fans capsized, the sidelines rose like one man, arms raised, but Petit Poucet's joy was short-lived: nine minutes, exactly, time for Kane to serve Bukayo deliciously. Saka, the Arsenal winger who centered hard and forced Danish captain Kjaer, pressured by Sterling, to catapult the ball into his own net (39th).

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