Raheem Sterling has confessed that he feared his goal in England's 2-0 win over Germany in the Euro 2020 round of 16 would be ruled out for offside.
Sterling broke the deadlock at Wembley in the 75th minute, capping off a fine personal performance. Latching onto Luke Shaw's dangerous cross he controlled his finish nicely to guide the ball past Manuel Neuer.
Reacting after scoring his third goal of the tournament, he told the BBC: "Doing it for your country will always be special and it's definitely a special moment for me.
"I celebrated and then for half a second I thought: 'let it not be offside.' But yeah, really happy it went in and really happy we got the win."
Sterling was also full of praise for his teammates, particularly midfield pairing Kalvin Phillips and Declan Rice who grew into the game after a shaky start.
"We knew we needed to put in a big performance against a very good side and I thought we did that today," he said.
"We knew the intensity they play at but we are a team who can deal with it and we kept going. The two boys in midfield Declan and Phillips were class. They ate up ground and they were just animals in there. All round, a great team performance."
Victory over Germany means England will now face either Ukraine or Sweden in the quarter-finals. That game will take place at the Stadio Olimpico next Saturday, with kick off scheduled for 8pm. Win that and they will face either Czech Republic or Denmark in the semi-finals.
Many have suggested that this represents an easy route to the final for Three Lions, but Sterling insisted there was no complacency in the group.
"We take it game by game. We'll go away, recover and focus on the next one," he said.
Source : 90min