Maintaining a clean sheet in four Euro 2020 games so far, England have marched into the quarterfinals beating Germany 2-0 at the Wembley Stadium. Raheem Sterling found the back of the net for the third time this edition, while Harry Kane got off the mark with a late goal, taking the Three Lions into the last eight. England have won all the 13 games in which Sterling has scored, while the Mannschaft have managed to win only in one of their European Championship outings.

This was also England’s first triumph over Germany in a knockout tie since the 1966 World Cup final, the occasion which kickstarted half a century of footballing rivalry between the two nations. Although the 43,000 strong crowd at Wembley created a deafening atmosphere once England were in front, Southgate was aware of the perils of getting lost in the buzz ahead of a quarter-final tie in Rome on Saturday.

“It didn’t really need me to say it but when we got in the dressing room, we were talking about Saturday already because today’s been an immense performance but emotionally and physically at a cost,” Southgate told a news conference.

“We’ve got to recover well, and (make sure) mentally we’re in the right space. It’s a dangerous moment for us. We’ll have that warmth of success... and we know it's going to be an immense challenge from here on.

“The players know that. Their feet are on the ground, they feel confident from the way they’ve played. But, of course, we came here with an intention and we’ve not achieved that yet.” England’s win came after Southgate reverted to a three-man central defensive setup, the formation he used when his side reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Joachim Low, who will now make way for Hansi Flick as Germany head coach, said, “This is a huge disappointment for us all. We hoped to achieve a lot more at this tournament and the belief in this team was high. In matches like this, it is imperative to use the few chances that you get. Timo Werner and Thomas Müller unfortunately couldn't score from their chances, so it feels pretty bad that we are out.”

Sterling is having a great Euro 2020 with three goals, but he also gave Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips due credit for playing well in the midfield against Germany. “We knew we needed to put a big performance in against a very good side and I think we did that today. We knew the intensity that we can play at, not a lot of teams can deal with it. The two boys in midfield [Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips] were class – they ate up ground and were just animals in there,” he said.

England next face Ukraine in the quarter-finals on Sunday.

Ukraine make history

Artem Dovbyk netted in stoppage time at the end of extra time as Ukraine squeezed past 10-man Sweden 2-1 at Hampden Park on Tuesday to claim the last available berth in the European Championship quarter-finals.

The two sides were level at 1-1 after 90 minutes, but the tide of the last-16 game changed when Sweden had defender Marcus Danielson sent off for a studs-up, high challenge nine minutes into extra time. Oleksandr Zinchenko’s left-footed half-volley after 27 minutes gave Ukraine the lead but Emil Forsberg equalised when he hit home a deflected effort from the edge of the penalty area two minutes before halftime. Ukraine now take on England in Saturday’s quarter-final in Rome. Artem Dovbyk’s 30th-minute winner in extra-time sends Ukraine to their first-ever European Championships quarter-finals.

On this historic achievement, Ukraine coach Andiry Shevchenko said, “Both teams played very well. It was an interesting match. Neither side wanted to lose so we got this drama at the end. With this performance and commitment, our team has deserved the love of the whole country. We knew how our team should play from the first minutes. We knew who could strengthen us [during the game]. The plan we had developed worked well.”