ENGLAND expected. As it always does. And at long last, The Three Lions delivered.

Football hasn’t quite ‘come home’ just yet, but for the first time since 1966, England are in the final of a major tournament after overcoming Denmark by two goals to one at Wembley after extra-time.

And just like the World Cup Final of 55 years ago, England will play Sunday’s European Championship Final against Italy at their own national stadium.

They had to show guts and resilience to get there, with Mikkel Damsgaard’s stunning free-kick rocking them back on their heels. But when Simon Kjaer put through his own net under pressure from Raheem Sterling to bring England level, there only looked to be one winner.

The decisive goal took longer than expected to arrive, but Harry Kane swept home in extra-time after seeing his penalty saved by the outstanding Kasper Schmeichel. The Danish keeper could feel enormously hard done by, particularly as the penalty award was hugely contentious, with Sterling going down in the area with minimal encouragement.

Wembley was abuzz with anticipation prior to the game, with over 60,000 crazed fans in attendance. The bonhomie of Sweet Caroline though soon gave way to the unsavoury scene of the Danish national anthem being roundly booed by the home crowd.

On the field, England didn’t show any early nerves early on, and Kane almost teed up Sterling with a cross to the back post to round off a positive start to the game.

It was something of a surprise that Gareth Southgate didn’t fall back on his plan that worked so well against the back three of Germany, plumping for the 4-2-3-1 that didn’t work so well against the back three of Scotland.

That gave them a problem with the Danish wingbacks, and there was a sign of that weakness when a neat exchange out wide saw the ball put over the top for Martin Braithwaite to chase, but the pace of Kyle Walker covering over plugged the gap at the last.

For all that England had looked sure-footed, a couple of mistakes in quick succession gave Pierre-Emile Hojberg and then Braithwaite sights of goal that eventually resulted in a corner. It was notable that the Danes were packing the area in front of Jordan Pickford, but the England keeper dealt with the early test well to punch the in-swinging delivery clear.

The Danes had settled though, and a brilliant crunching tackle on Kane from Jannick Vestergaard allowed them to break onto the England backline, where Damsgaard worked the space for a shot and curled it just wide of the post that Federico Chiesa had bent the ball into 24 hours or so earlier.

When he had his chance from a deadball moments later though, he made no mistake. One cheap free-kick conceded led to another as Luke Shaw grappled Andreas Christensen to the ground, and now it was within range.

Still, from 30 yards, it was going to take something special to beat Pickford, and boy, did Damsgaard come up with the goods. He struck the ball with the inside of his foot, swerving it up and over the wall and beyond the desperate grasp of the England keeper.

It was the first free-kick that had been scored at the tournament, and the first goal that England had conceded. Now we would see what Southgate’s men were really made of.

They wobbled, but then regrouped, and Schmeichel pulled off an unbelievable save as he spread himself to deny Raheem Sterling from close range.

The Danes didn’t heed the warning though, and Bukayo Saka exposed them down their left again shortly after, squaring the ball to where Sterling was waiting to tap home, only for the desperate Kjaer to beat him to the punch and slide the ball into his own net as he tried in vain to clear.

The Danes were now hoping for half-time to come, and were grateful to hear the whistle to now allow them the chance to regroup.

That they did, and they started the second period brightly, but it was England that almost hit the front when Denmark were guilty of giving away a silly free-kick of their own.

Joakim Maehle barged through the back of Kane unnecessarily wide on the England right, allowing Mason Mount to swing the ball onto the head of Harry Maguire. There was an intake of breath all around Wembley, but Schmeichel launched himself to his right to brilliantly claw the ball out of the bottom corner.

England were in the ascendency though, with the Danes finding it harder and harder to hold the ball up the field. They had started the half deep, and were practically on top of Schmeichel as the game wore on.

England probed, but couldn’t find a way through, prompting Southgate to look to Jack Grealish in place of Saka. His presence lifted the crowd if nothing else, and they were roaring for a penalty as Kane kicked the back of Christian Norgaard’s leg in the area, but referee Danny Makkelie was having none of it.

The Danes staggered on like a boxer praying for the bell, begging the question of how they would survive 30 minutes of extra time should they even make it that far.

They did just that though, perhaps banking on England’s old failings from the penalty spot to come back to bite them once again. Southgate was the man to miss the crucial penalty the last time they stood at such a juncture, and as the 90 minutes drew to a close, he must have wondered if he would have his moment of redemption at last.

Schmeichel was the main reason Denmark held onto hope, diving low to his right to deny Kane at the start of extra time, but England also had to share some of the responsibility for not getting themselves over the line.

Just as the Danes thought they had made it to half-time though, Sterling wriggled his way into the area and went down under pressure from three defenders. There didn’t appear to be a lot - if anything - in it, but the referee pointed to the spot, and VAR backed up his call.

Kane stepped up, but Schmeichel dived to his left and saved the England skipper’s poor effort, only for the ball to squirm up and back into Kane’s path to sweep home.

It was desperately cruel on the heroic Schmeichel, but it could hardly be argued that England didn’t deserve to be ahead. And over the piece, they deserved their shot at history this Sunday.