AP
Danish footie fans are already gathering at this pre-match party in Vinegar Yard, South London

England are just one match away from facing Italy in the Euro 2020 final – but to get there, they’ll will have to beat an increasingly strong Denmark team.

Italy triumphed over Spain in a hotly contested thriller last night, edging through on penalties after a 1-1 draw following extra time.

England’s opponents tonight are Denmark, who have already had their best Euros since their surprise 1992 victory.

Denmark’s star player, Inter Milan’s Christian Erickson, collapsed on the pitch during their first match of the tournament.

The attacking midfielder suffered a cardiac arrest, and in the shock that followed his team struggled to make it out of the group stages.

But now the Danes have turned that trauma into a sense of destiny, and a string of successive victories. The team has grown into the tournament, and attacking threats like Kasper Dolberg are not to be underestimated.

However Denmark boss Kasper Hjulmand fears that fatigue could strain his players. They gave everything, he says, during their quarter final win against the Czech Republic.

Southgate’s England

England head coach Gareth Southgate has grown into a national hero as his team continued to perform on the world stage.

He will be under pressure to name his strongest side for tonight’s match, but the chances are it will not be the same starting 11.

He has gone 35 games so far without naming the same team. This is not surprising given the depth of the current side.

Another question for the boss will be his formation. In his last victory Southgate opted for a 4-2-3-1 set-up, but today he’ll have choose whether to revert back to a more solid 3-4-3 in the hopes of shutting out the Danish attackers.

Mr Southgate knew exactly how much tonight’s match could mean to England:

“We’ve never been to a European Championship Final so we can be the first which is really exciting for everybody”.

He continued to acknowledge the threat that tonight’s opponents face to that goal:

“We respect the Danes, I’m obviously old enough to remember them winning it”.

Going to to say that the team were “Incredible, the individual players but also the teams they’ve produced for the size of the population that they have”.

A national feeling

Messages of support for Gareth Southgate and the England team have been flooding in this morning.

Both Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Leader of the Opposition Sir Keir Starmer have sent messages of praise and good luck to the team today.

Even the Prince of Wales joined in, tweeting a message of good luck along with a video of a royal band playing a rendition of David Baddiel and Frank Skinner’s Three Lions.

Sport