Michael Owen's shirt trade indiscretion and late night brew refusal - Reporting on Germany 1-5 England
Britain face Germany in Munich on Tuesday night and the game evoked affectionate recollections for one of Mirror Sport's writers who wrote about the Michael Owen-motivated 5-1 triumph
Britain's 5-1 win in Munich on September 1, 2001 remaining parts a "where were you" second for Three Lions fans who'd never seen it's like - or since. Fortunately for me it was an "I was there" night, an outcome caught in history and a game never to be forgotten by anybody inside Munich's huge Olympiastadion.
In our business the games come thick and quick and many are much of the time neglected even faster. However, not this one. Just about 21 years after the fact it lives on in the memory for England fans, and this journalist. Also, it's prized much more since it came from totally no place.
That undoubtedly was plainly evident in the vibe of bewilderment that was carved on the substance of essentially every German games author in the press box as arbitrator Perluigi Collina blew the last whistle. On the off chance that England's voyaging press pack didn't exactly accept it, our German partners positively proved unable. They viewed at one another not knowing whether to chuckle or cry as they arranged to waste their darling public group on paper.
In any case, the scoreboard didn't lie. Never has the end-product on an arena big screen been captured to such an extent. Myself and my partners continued to gaze at it just to affirm what we'd recently seen. Germany fans around us were shocked into quiet as everything that can possibly be hears were euphoric England fans who sang long into the evening. "5-1 - and even Heskey scored" was the serenade which filled the Munich air - however the night hadn't begun all that well for Sven Goran Eriksson's stars.
Bayern Munich goliath striker Carsten Jancker scored after only six minutes to leave England fans dreading an extreme night ahead. In any case, England immediately clicked into gear with Michael Owen coolly scoring the principal objective of his full go-around to even out the scores. Steven Gerrard's long reach thunderclap not long before half time staggered Germany before Owen's subsequent minutes after half time left Rudi Voller's men in chaos.
Gerrard slipped Owen in to score his full go-around with a shot crushed past manager Oliver Khan before David Beckham and Paul Scholes joined to sneak through Emile Heskey. Never the best of finishers, Heskey got his opportunity of history and opened home the late objective that made it 5-1 and put all of England in fairyland in Deutschland.
Down the stairs in the meeting region, England players wore smiles that remained for a really long time later Beckham would agree "I contemplate that game consistently". Full go-around legend Owen had swopped his shirt at the last whistle with Germany safeguard Jorg Bohme. Be that as it may, when he returned to the changing area he understood his shirt would be a notorious keepsake of his vocation - and requested that buddy Christian Ziege recover it for him.
The shirt and match ball currently invest heavily of spot in a frightened bureau at his home. Concerning Sven, his underlying response was shock. To such an extent he told Sky's Clare Tomlinson: "I don't think we are all around as great as the objectives shows, I mean 5-1 here is a lot yet the group played quite well." The under-expressed Swede ought to have savored it more as it was his stand-apart win responsible for England. However, not every person was excited at the success.
On getting back to my inn well after 12 PM a cantankerous barman declined a solicitation for lagers and hurled down the shades. Indeed, even that, however, couldn't hose the best England win I've at any point seen.