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England storms into Euro 2020 final, memes say it's coming home

Get a kick out of the reaction to the big win. Also, are we seeing double, or were there two balls on the pitch at the same time?

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper
2 min read

It's not the World Cup, but it still feels pretty good. On Wednesday, England beat Denmark 2-1 in the semifinal of the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, aka Euro 2020, and it's fair to say the victory kick-started a social-media wave.

Many fans cited the chorus of the England tribute song, Three Lions (It's Coming Home), by English comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner and the band The Lightning Seeds, which marked England's hosting of Euro 1996. Ever since then, "it's coming home" has been a popular chant for hope-filled England fans.

Liam Gallagher, lead singer of the band Oasis, was one of many to tweet the line after the victory.

Since England now moves on to play Italy, Italian fans had a twist on the slogan, arguing that, "It's coming to Rome."

It wouldn't be soccer (er, football) without controversy, and this game had some too. Raheem Sterling of England drew a penalty on a foul that, USA Today notes, "really didn't look like a foul at all." That led to the hashtag #DivingHome.

There also appeared to be two balls on the pitch at the time of the controversial penalty. Whoops. Some fans pointed out that when this same thing happened later in the match, play was stopped, but that didn't happen earlier.

"England invented football so they can do what they want apparently," said one Twitter user.

The game was played in London, and some tweets suggested that Queen Elizabeth II was working some royal magic with VAR, aka video assistant referees.

There'll be plenty more social reaction come Sunday, when England meets Italy at noon PT at London's Wembley Stadium.