It was probably the most messed-up football competition we have had in ages. It’s Euro 2020 taking place in 2021. Already you can see the legacy of what’s been going wrong.

It was an event that required players from across Europe to travel to other countries across Europe at a time when people weren’t allowed to travel freely to those countries because of a pandemic and probably a little bit of extra post-Brexit paperwork.

The spectacle that we have enjoyed technically should have had smaller crowds but a special test scheme to allow larger events was used. Add all of this together and it feels like it was a miracle that Euro 2020 even happened.

That makes me even more grateful for what we have had. After so many months of the news being filled with some rather sad information it has been so different to see something develop that brought us together.

I say us and I mean English people. I am also 1/32th Welsh, so if things would have gone differently I’d be bigging that up. I’ll also admit that I am not normally a football fan but I do enjoy beating foreign countries so this has gone well.

The normal plot line of England on the international stage is well known. Act one: We don’t think we’ll do well. Act two: We start to perform better than expected and we start to believe we could go all the way. Act three: We collapse in the quarter-finals.

This time was different. The further we went the better we felt. We managed to avoid losing to Germany on penalties by not letting it get to the penalty stage, which was a novel and refreshing idea.

The nation really started to pay attention by the time we were facing Denmark. Some fans let off a little too much steam. Some climbed on top of a double-decker bus in London and sent up some flares. If I were breaking the law I’d try to not draw attraction to myself, the very opposite of what flares do.

The pressure built and as the final started and the pint I was about to enjoy still hadn’t settled we saw the first goal. It was in that moment that I felt more joy in this nation than we have had in such a long time.

Yes, we still have virus strains and rows about masks to go. We still have to balance the health and economy but for now let’s enjoy what we have seen.

Football didn’t come home but that’s OK, it would have had to isolate for 10 days anyway.