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England expectant as destiny awaits Venables' reborn team

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Remove the incredible hype and the heartfelt national hope and what is left is an England team whose spirit, if not necessarily their performances, have soared in the telling space of 11 days of Euro 96.

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At stake, a place in the final of the second biggest football tournament in the world. The opponents are old, but now stricken, foes - Germany.

There will be a sell-out crowd of almost 76,000 supporters at Wembley Stadium tonight, the vast majority of them a chanting, roaring, praying brotherhood of English fans who see Terry Venables' team as destined to win the European Championships just as their now fabled predecessors 30 years ago won the World Cup.

Standing between them and glory are Germany whose record against the host nation, the 1966 final apart, is outstanding. They have lost two meaningless friendlies in the decades since 1966 and have ended England's World Cup aspirations on two occasions.

But the record books mean nothing in the highways and byways of England today. The nation is united behind a team that looked at one stage possible first-round casualties.

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So much has changed in 11 days that it is not just the ordinary folk of England who feel that the country's name is written on the Henri Delauney Trophy.

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