England Euro semi-final win: How the newspapers reacted

Three Lions will play Italy in Sunday’s final at 8pm

‘Kane you believe it?’ (AP)

England have made it through to the final of Euro 2020, winning a tense match against Denmark at Wembley 2-1 on Wednesday night, as captain Harry Kane scored a penalty in extra time.

The win means the Three Lions are through to Sunday’s final against Italy, their first major final since 1966.

Thursday morning’s newspapers were jubilant following the winning game, with many remarking on the historic moment and celebrating Gareth Southgate’s squad.

The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Independent all went for headlines which referenced the historic relevance of the win.

The Daily Telegraph dubbed the team “the history boys”, captioning an image of the ecstatic squad, piled on top of Harry Kane.

“England make history” was The Times’ headline above a photograph of Mr Kane celebrating with teammate Phil Foden.

Here at The Independent the digital front page called the team “The history-makers”, explaining: “Extra time victory puts England into first final since 1966.”

The Sun parodied the advertising campaign of Carlsberg beer, a Danish brand, with the headline, “Probably the best feeling in the world”.

However, the paper was somewhat cautious in celebrating the team’s achievements, saying: “Now only Italy stand between Gareth Southgate’s brave squad and a place in the history books.”

Several other papers went for the headline “Final-ly” – referring to the 55 years it had taken the England squad to reach a final.

The Daily Mirror ran the headline: “Finally there!” adding, “They think it’s all over – but there’s one game to come.”

Meanwhile, The Daily Mail described the moment as a “Euros sensation” and asked, “Kane you believe it?” above an image of England’s captain punching the air.

The i newspaper called it “Fairytale football” whie describing the win as “thrilling”.

The Daily Star took a light-hearted approach with a self-proclaimed “souvenir edition”, suggesting that readers should purchase two copies in case they had to wait another 55 years for an English football team to reach another final.

Over in Italy, the papers responded to England’s win by vowing that the Azzuri would “tame the lions”.

Italian newspaper Il Giornale announced Italy’s intentions for the match with the words: “It’s the stuff of fairytales for England. It is our job to turn the fairytale into their nightmare.”

Meanwhile some sections of Italian media pronounced the penalty, which was awarded after an apparent foul and eventually led to England’s winning goal, “very soft” and “almost non-existent”.

Not all Italian newspapers were so damning, however, with the centre-left La Repubblica calling the England team “a golden generation”, and adding that the squad formed “an indestructible team endowed with merciless serenity”.

In Denmark, the media appeared to take the national team’s defeat relatively well. “The Danes looked like the second best team on the pitch,” acknowledged Politiken’s Soren Lissner.

The Danish tabloid, BT, suggested that it was only due to “a miracle save by Kasper Schmeichel and heroic defensive performances” that Denmark managed to force the match into extra time.