Thread by @FinancialTimes

1966 is the last time England’s football team won a trophy. Will that change on Sunday as they play Italy in the Euro 2020 final? Whatever happens, let's take a look at how the team's fortunes have long reflected the national mood with @KuperSimon #ITAENG ft.com/content/a626d7…

The ‘why doesn’t England win anymore?’ debate transcends football. When people talk about winning World Cups, or a more continental European playing style, or spoiled overpaid players, 'they tend also to be talking about the nature of England’ ft.com/content/a626d7…

England’s post-1966 footballing failures ‘served as metaphors for national decline, especially because so many of them — in 1970, 1990 and 1996 — came against Germany, the very nation that Britain had repeatedly defeated in its superpower days’ ft.com/content/a626d7…

Football was almost like war. At half-time of a game in 1989, England manager Bobby Robson told the team: ‘Have a look at your skipper [Terry Butcher]. Let none of you let him down.’ Britain’s tabloids approved: ‘YOU’RE A BLOODY HERO SKIPPER’ ft.com/content/a626d7…

Taylor, Venables, Hoddle, Eriksson (to name but a few): each new England coach has carried a heavy burden. ‘This midsized nation with a modest tradition in international football was expected to win the World Cup,’ writes @KuperSimon ft.com/content/a626d7…

The ‘genius’ of the anthem that stuck following England’s victory over the Netherlands during Euro 96 is that it combines ‘the two contradictory beliefs held by England fans: that England always loses, and that it has a manifest destiny to triumph’ ft.com/content/a626d7…

In 2016, when England crashed out of the Euros to Iceland, the ritual tabloid-led scapegoating began of England’s supposedly overpaid and overhyped players ft.com/content/a626d7…

Gareth Southgate, appointed England manager in 2016, immediately performed a ‘reverse Brexit’, constructing a team that played cold-headed continental passing football.

‘To him, football isn’t war, or art. It’s system’ ft.com/content/a626d7…

Perhaps half of England’s 56m people will watch the Euro 2020 final. If a football match matters to that many people, it’s because it’s more than just a football match.

‘The England team is the nation made flesh’ ft.com/content/a626d7…

England’s eternal failure has been one of football’s favourite stories. Will that story end tomorrow? And what will the result do to the nation’s sense of self? Read on >> ft.com/content/a626d7…