Gary Lineker hails England’s Euro 2024 heroes as ‘new Real Madrid’… but says he was RIGHT to blast ‘s***’ early games

GARY LINEKER knows more than most about England’s 58 years of hurt — the bloke even has his name mentioned in the lyrics of Three Lions.

And the former World Cup Golden Boot winner believes that Gareth Southgate’s side can end decades of agony after developing a mentality reminiscent of Real Madrid in the Champions League.

The record 15-time champions of Europe at club level never know when they are beaten.

And despite being a Barcelona man, Lineker recognises the same qualities in England after they came from behind to claim three dramatic wins in the knock-out stages of these Euros.

Lineker, who will anchor the BBC’s live coverage of tomorrow’s final against Spain, said: “England didn’t start well but they have grown.

They have developed a ‘Real Madrid in the Champions League’ mentality.

“The Bellingham overhead kick to equalise in the 96th minute against Slovakia, five perfect penalties against Switzerland, then the Ollie Watkins moment at the death against Holland.”

Lineker was the six-goal leading scorer at the 1986 World Cup but was denied by Diego Maradona’s controversial Hand of God and then suffered the heartache of defeat in a semi-final shootout by West Germany at Italia 90.

And the 63-year-old said: “It was always my ambition to win a trophy as a player for England.

“Subsequently, as a broadcaster, it’s always been my ambition to be able to say ‘England are European champions’ or ‘England are world champions’. And I’m getting older, so it needs to happen soon!

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“Spain have been the team of the tournament so far — but the real team of the tournament are ultimately the team that wins it.

“There’s no doubt Spain have been the best team to watch. They have had six games, six wins, none of them on penalties, and no one has ever done that before.

“But England have given us three magical moments — and magical moments are what winning tournaments are based on.

“First there was Bellingham’s overhead kick and if that hadn’t gone in we’d have been distraught.

“Then the five boys stepping up to take the penalties, especially Bukayo Saka.

“Along with Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho, Saka got racial abuse after missing penalties in the last Euros final. So to see five black or mixed-race players step forward courageously and take perfect penalties was brilliant.

“Then Watkins’ moment, which was such a brilliant finish. He gives you something different, he makes runs that stretch a defence. That’s not Harry Kane’s game.

“Gareth changed it and that was brave to bring his captain off. Now he knows that he can trust Watkins.

"He will start with Kane in the final but if it’s not quite happening, he can bring on fresh legs that want to run in behind.”

Lineker created a  storm  when he referred to England’s 1-1 draw with Denmark as being ‘s**t’ on his The Rest Is Football podcast.

That caused skipper Kane to hit back at criticism from former players working as pundits.

But Lineker said: “I think I was a bit shafted by the journalist who asked the question to Kane saying I’d said England were ‘s**t’, I’d actually said the game was ‘s**t’ — so I feel that was unfair.

“The first couple of games were turgid, the balance wasn’t right. Harry and Gareth said they were struggling. We were basically right.

“On the BBC and the podcast, you have to say what you think, as long as you don’t get personal — and we were talking tactically about how things could improve.

“Tournaments are hard. We kept stipulating that — being honest.

“Alan Shearer and myself both got to semi-finals but there were times in those tournaments when we weren’t very good.

“In the last two games, England have been much freer and we are eulogising them and that’s what we want to be doing — hopefully even more so after the final.”

Lineker expects Sunday’s final to be the last match of Southgate’s eight-match reign and he hopes the Three Lions boss rides off with a Knighthood.

He said: “I think Gareth will go, win or lose. It is very difficult to be England manager for that long.

“You could see earlier in this tournament that he wasn’t himself, that he was finding it hard. I think he’ll probably call it a day.

“If it doesn’t happen again, then the disappointment might be too much for him — but if we win, it is a glorious way to go.

“Go off into the sunset, stick that Knighthood on his chest and everybody will love him forever.

“Whether you agree with his tactics or not, Gareth  has brought harmony to that squad and given respect back to English footballers.

“He’s a thoroughly decent human being. I’d love them to win it for him.

“He’s got everything right in the last few games. He realised his system wasn’t working and he changed it — he deserves all the credit in the world. He’s got his subs and penalty-takers right.

“But England have also had a bit of luck, especially the penalty against the Dutch, which was a poor decision.

“I played in two tournaments where we didn’t have the breaks — the Hand of God and then in the semi-final in 1990, in extra-time, Chris Waddle had a shot like Watkins but it hit the inside of the post and came out.

“You can add Gazza’s studs  just missing the ball for what would have been a winner in the ’96 semi-final and Frank Lampard’s goal being disallowed when it was a yard over the line in 2010.”

‘All those oh so nears’, as the song goes. But perhaps Sunday will  be  the  night  when football finally comes home.