Richard Buxton: England set for another summer of love
Southgate's men reach Nations League semis with comeback win over Croatia
Laying to rest the ghosts of England's past is proving far easier than originally forecast.
Wayne Rooney's polarising swansong may have brought down an official curtain on the "golden generation", but last night's crucial Nations League victory over Croatia further closed the door on that inglorious and winless chapter.
| ENGLAND | CROATIA |
| 2 | 1 |
Another potential summer of love beckons after reaching a second semi-final in barely sixmonths; no doubt again characterised by the unmistakeable sound of "Football's Coming Home" that gleefully reverberated around Wembley at the final whistle of the 2-1 win.
It did not take a testimonial masquerading as an international friendly in midweek to see why Rooney's generation needed consigning to the archives, especially after revealing that several of his former teammates are struggling to come to terms with the national side's progress under Gareth Southgate.
Such resentment is understandable, particularly given that history will not judge the current Three Lions side solely on the strength of their achievements.
The shortcomings of household names that delivered precious little before them will also find itself under the microscope.
Rooney belonged to a generation of players that boasted stellar quality in all departments, characterised by the likes of David Beckham, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Owen, among others.
And yet, for all that abundance of brilliance, they were still incapable of progressing beyond the quarter-final stage at no fewer than four major international tournaments.
On occasion, they never even managed to reach the starting line.
Croatia's 2007 visit to Wembley culminated in England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008 and accelerated the downfall of another former Middlesbrough manager in Steve McClaren.
But Southgate is proving himself to be everything apart from another "wally with the brolly".
In the past five months alone, he has managed to surpass that previous benchmark twice while simultaneously eradicating the legacy of the previous era's languid on-field standard.
By the end of their cycle, Rooney and company were guilty of resting on their collective laurels; exuding a level of bluster recently showcased by the architects of Brexit.
The current side cannot be accused of such complacency. After the opening 20 minutes, the visitors had registered just two attempts on goal compared to the five fashioned by England.
Imperfection, however, is still rife within the current ranks, typified by Fabian Delph's botched back pass in the first half to Jordan Pickford, only for the Everton goalkeeper to chest the ball into the path of Ante Rebic, who floated it over a gaping goalmouth.
Poor decision-making was not exclusive to the pair. Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling both proved wasteful in possession during the first 45 minutes while Andrej Kramaric tied John Stones in knots before firing home Croatia's deflected opener just shy of the hour mark.
Southgate's in-game management proved inspired; sending on Jesse Lingard to ultimately bundle home an equaliser before Kane completed the turnaround with five minutes to spare.
Neither goal will go down for its splendour, but little about England's preamble to eventual victory can be considered aesthetically pleasing. It did not need to be, in truth.
Avenging the heartache of a World Cup semi-final exit to Zlatko Dalic's side while securing progress to the Nations League's latter stages may have been the primary objective.
A genuine death knell to Rooney's excessively-hyped generation has also been long overdue.
ENGLAND: Pickford, Walker, Gomez, Stones, Chilwell, Rashford (Sancho 73), Dier, Delph (Lingard 73), Sterling, Barkley (Alli 64), Kane
CROATIA: Kalinic, Vrsaljko (Milic 26), Lovren, Vida, Jedvaj, Modric, Brozovic, Rebic (Brekalo 46), Vlasic (Rog 79), Perisic, Kramaric
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