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Euro 2020

29th Jun 2021

England ‘fans’ boo during German national anthem

Kieran Galpin

This booing is getting really boring

Tonight is the biggest match for the England team in a while. Booing has been central to the footie discourse over the last month, and tonight is no different.

During the German national anthem, booing filled the stadium. This could certainly be due to England and Germany’s age-old rivalry.

As usual, booing filled the stadium once more as the teams took the knee. This is unsurprising but continually disappointing. The throats of some England fans must be sore because they also seem to boo whenever Germany take possession of the ball.

On the subject of said Rivalry, we spoke to journalist Constantin Eckner earlier today. Here is what he had to say:

“There is kind of the feeling that the Germans are slight underdogs, and that the England team have to be favourites because they play at home.

“In the past it was more like ‘yeah we’ll beat England of course, that’s just how it works.’ If you look back, since 1966 the West German/German team has won 15 of 24 matches [against England].

“So there was some confidence back in the day, like in 2010. Even then most people were like ‘yeah of course we’ll beat England!'”

This is the first time England have faced Germany in a major tournament since the 4-1 defeat they suffered at the last 16 stage of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Germany opened up a two-goal lead in little over half an hour that day. Matthew Upson quickly halved the deficit before officials failed to spot that Frank Lampard’s shot had clearly crossed the line for an equaliser. Two more goals in the second half for Thomas Muller made certain of Germany’s progress.

Whether this match will play out similarly is yet to be seen, but fans are clearly passionate about it coming home. They should, however, spend less time booing and more time watching the match.