Whenever the English national team met Germany, it was in advance for decades like in Oscar Wilde's famous saying about the second marriage as the triumph of hope over experience.
Experience has shown that twenty-two players run behind a ball for ninety minutes and the Germans win in the end.
Nevertheless, hope said to the anxious England fans: "Maybe this time I will win", as Liza Minelli sings in the film musical "Cabaret".
David Baddiel and Frank Skinner summed up this juxtaposition of hope and negative expectation in their soccer anthem "The Three Lions". On the one hand, the chorus proclaims that football is returning home to the game's mother nation, on the other hand, the song refers to the sobering experience that England mostly loses. This attitude found expression in the headline of the Daily Star the day after the English victory over the German team, which was celebrated as "historic". Instead of adopting a triumphalistic tone, the tabloid reported with self-ironic dryness: "England has not lost."
Other newspapers assured their readers that they did not dream, even though the result is "the stuff dreams are made of," as it was said in some places with recourse to Shakespeare.
Everything has changed in one fell swoop since Tuesday.
Whatever the outcome of England's quarter-finals against Ukraine this Saturday, commentators agree that Gareth Southgate's players have etched themselves into the national memory as the team that lifted a curse that has spanned more than half a century.
For the first time, the English dare to dream realistically that they could win a major tournament for the first time again after the legendary 1966 final, especially at Wembley, on the sacred turf.
It is a good omen that goalkeeper Jordan Pickford beat the record of four games to zero in a major tournament set by Gordon Banks in 1966.
Pickford now hopes to surpass the soccer hero.
The fans have to console themselves that they are not allowed to follow their team on the “March on Rome” this Saturday because of the quarantine regulations.
With an appeal to compatriots living on mainland Europe to do everything in their power to procure tickets for the Stadio Olimpico in order to get the team going in the game against Ukraine, the English Football Association struck a tone similar to that of Admiral Nelson when he spoke to the seafarers in front of the Battle of Trafalgar spoke into conscience: England expected that every man would do his duty.
England coach Gareth Southgate warns against complacency. He admits that the euphoria after the win against Germany could take the team's edge off. The congratulations are wonderful, but also dangerous. Another mind would easily revert to daring rhetoric. As his worthy call to players and fans to reflect on English values even in the heat of the moment, Southgate is carved from more subtle cloth. Unlike those fans whose boos at the German national anthem found many English football fans to be embarrassing, including comedian John Cleese.