“Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.”

Gary Lineker’s famous quote still resonates – and not just with England fans – which is why England vs Germany tops the bill at the next stage of Euro 2020.

For the purist, De Bruyne’s Belgium vs Ronaldo’s Portugal might be the preferred viewing choice for the Round of 16.

But in a tournament that has bubbled along for two weeks without ever threatening to boil over, it’s the clash of familiar foes that grabs the attention.

Halfway through, we’ve seen some decent stuff and some dross; some great goals, great misses and decent own goals.

But – the near-tragedy of Christian Eriksen apart – not much drama to get tongues wagging on this side of the world.

It’s been too nice, a bit meh, lacking in blood and guts. But some of that is down to the format: the lack of jeopardy is in-built, the group of death not living up to its name.

Referees have been generally good, crowds have behaved. Even VAR has behaved – most of the time. Uefa will be pleased, which is usually a bad sign.

So, it is to Tuesday’s clash between the old enemies that we look for something to quicken the pulse and make a few lost zeds seem a price worth paying.

The trouble is … we can’t even be sure about that any longer.

Germany have lost their most prized asset – their inevitability.

They won only one of their three group games in this tournament and needed an 84th minute goal against Hungary to avoid a disastrous early exit.

This follows an embarrassingly premature departure from the last World Cup and another in the Nations Cup.

They were six minutes from an unthinkable, unwanted hattrick, but the two failures were already enough for manager, Jogi Low, to announce this would be his last tournament after 15 years in charge.

Despite having a core of successful Bayern Munich stars, the national team’s form has been uncharacteristically slapdash in recent years.

The vorsprung durch technik has spluttered. They’ve lost to North Macedonia and got hammered 6-0 by Spain. They’ve even missed penalties.

But none of this will cut much ice with England fans for whom agonising defeat to Germany in penalty shootouts has long been embedded in the DNA.

And it would not have gone amiss that just when it looked as if Portugal would be turning up at Wembley next week, Germany found an equaliser.

When it came from a deflected late shot from distance by a substitute, to England fans, it felt typical. And inevitable.

Even if this is a non-vintage Germany side, the feeling is that England will have to raise their game several notches to win.

The muddling through from a mediocre group with just two goals has left a home audience, who’ve been craving for a trophy after 55 barren years, distinctly unimpressed.

Of course, it was against West Germany, to be precise, when England enjoyed its finest hour in 1966, that the rivalry really started.

But those two semifinal defeats on penalties in 1990 (in the World Cup) and 1996 (in the Euros) have left indelible scars that not even a 5-1 thrashing in a World Cup qualifier in Munich in 2002 could erase.

That it was current boss Gareth Southgate, of all people, who botched the vital kick in 96 simply adds pathos to the memory.

Nor are people convinced Southgate is the manager to wrestle this Eastern Lowland gorilla off the nation’s back.

England do have a talented, young squad, especially in attack, but the cautious Southgate seems to send them out in straitjackets.

Only when forced by a Covid-19 scare did he make significant changes to the line-up. And he got lucky.

Jack Grealish and Bukayo Saka were the undoubted stars of the win over Czech Republic but no one is sure they’ll retain their places.

On paper, with the above pair, Jadon Sancho, seemingly about to join Manchester United, the precocious Jude Bellingham, still 17, Phil Foden, Mason Mount and Raheem Sterling, there is a surfeit of attacking zeal.

And then there’s Harry Kane, subject of a £100m plus bid by Manchester City but strangely out of sorts so far.

There’s a lot for an unconvincing German defence to fear.

At least we can now hope that this fixture will no longer be billed as the latest edition in refighting World War II.

That may have been the case up to 1996 when certain tabloid newspapers suggested sending a tank to the German embassy and Spitfires (WW2 fighter planes) over Berlin. Just for a bit of fun – and to sell papers – of course.

Not only do most players have grandfathers born after the conflict, many are clubmates.

No less than three Germans play for Chelsea who also have three Englishmen in the squad. While two Englishmen play for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga.

But they might be advised not to get too close given what happened when two of Chelsea’s England contingent hugged clubmate Gary Gilmour of Scotland who turned out to have Covid-19.

They are now self-isolating and likely to miss the game.

This crop of England players is hungry and diverse, and we were told unencumbered by the baggage that troubled their Golden Generation predecessors.

On recent form, we can’t be so sure.

But Germany’s arrival will at least give them the perfect opportunity to send Lineker’s quote to the trash bin.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.