Wembley, in yellow and blue

Many things happened and all were heartfelt, on Sunday afternoon at Wembley. before England will play their second qualifying match for the Eurocup against Ukraine, there are various events related to the history of the selection of the ‘three lions’, but the day, more than football, wants to be unity. A large part of the stadium was colored yellow and blue during the visit of Ukrainein another gesture by the English public to support his cause for the misery of the war on Russiamore than a year after the invasion that caused terrible atrocities and thousands of war victims.

The English Football Association did not waste the opportunity to side with the Ukrainian cause, as the government of Rishi Sunakwhich sent the first tanks challenging 2 of making the British the Government of London promised to deliver kyiv . More than a thousand displaced Ukrainian citizens and their host families in United Kingdom They were invited to the match and around 4,500 Ukrainian fans were also among the fans who filled the stands of the London stadium, with the clear aim of unity. And what was achieved was a very powerful image: the 22 players mixed to show a huge flag of Ukrainewith a message of ‘peace’ (peace), which went around the world.

The feeling of confrontation pulsates from the beginning, with the players of Ukraine leaving the tunnel draped on their shoulders with blue and yellow flags, with the colors of their country, and the ceremonial interpretation of their song, sung between tears. It’s easy to wonder how they can play soccer. Despite the fact that you can feel that there is a whole country watching, dreaming of victory, like a short break from suffering, it seems that the result and the game are not important for the Ukrainians. So it is.

SA England The victory was comfortable for him, with two goals in just two minutes, although he floated in that environment Ukraine they became the only team in the world of football that people would not think of losing. In the stands there was a few minutes of strange silence and restrained celebration of the goals, and the usual booming chant of encouragement to the ‘pross’ was not heard either, as if to assume that the afternoon had more unity than sporting weight.

In a game with this emotional charge, Zinchenko, Mudryk and his teammates put on the dignity of representing a nation under attack. And England did what they had to. Winning the game and confirming that victory against Italy, the first on Italian soil since 1961, was a great step forward to confirm the best expectations about the team he leads Gareth Southgate. dialed again Harry Kanewho took the golden boot as the top scorer in the history of the English team, and had a minute’s applause for George Cohen, the 1966 World Cup winner, who died in December. Awards, recognition and contain satisfaction, with moral success of Ukrainetaken for a day of immense symbolic load of Wembley.