England are celebrating a mammoth European Championship victory over Germany after Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane fired Gareth Southgate’s men into the quarter-finals.

For many onlookers facing Die Mannschaft brought up painful memories, from the 1970 World Cup to the ghost goal in 2010 as well as the Italia ’90 and Euro ’96 semi-final shootout heartbreaks.

But England’s players showed few signs of anxiety, nerves or baggage in the buildup or at Wembley, heeding boss Southgate’s advice to write their own history as Sterling and Kane struck in a famous 2-0 round-of-16 win.

The din inside the national stadium belied the 40,000 or so in attendance and the reward for just their second-ever Euros knockout win is a quarter-final clash with Sweden or Ukraine in Rome this Saturday.

England will head to Italy on the crest of a wave after digging deep on a nervy evening in front of a partisan home crowd, with goalkeeper Jordan Pickford producing some important saves before Sterling broke the deadlock in the second half.

The 26-year-old turned in Luke Shaw’s driven cross home to send supporters wild, but he was soon panicking after his loose ball led Thomas Muller to race through.

But the Germany veteran – who scored twice against England in their 2010 World Cup exit – inexplicably dragged wide and Kane opened his account for the tournament by directing home fan favourite Jack Grealish’s cross.