The immediate aftermath of Sundays final has been too painful to even think about writing this. until now.
Being an England fan, and ending a tournament with a Penalty Shoot-out loss is a fairly common occurrence, but this year, it hurt more than any other.
If you read my blog post before the tournament, you'll know I wasn't hopeful of England chances, but I was hopeful of the tournament becoming a bit of a beacon in terms of shining a light of hope that things just might be getting back to normal after the severity of the Covid Pandemic.
For me, the greatest tournaments have all involved good times with friends and family. Whether its watching the game in a pub, nervously expecting a phone call from the wife to say she had gone into labour (2016 - the phone call never came.... I had to endure the Iceland game), whether its a BBQ for friends as your parents are away (2002), whether its standing outside the bookies whilst your dad puts £1 on Alan Shearer to score first, before walking to the pub to watch the game (as well as being jealous of your dad going to the Holland game without you in 96), or the general limbs scene across the pubs/fan parks across the country in 2018.
And that's my hope for Euro 2020, staged in 2021... That we can see those sorts of scenes once again and with lockdown restrictions easing, hopefully we can all create those memories, which we all hold dear with the football being central to them.
And this is exactly what happened, in an emotional roller-coaster of a month, as we celebrated the best that football has to offer, and sadly we also saw the worst of it too.
The scenes at Wembley on Sunday were unsavoury, and the racist abuse that three young men, who have all done their country proud (not just this summer, but throughout their lives) was dreadful.
In Jadon Sancho, we had a guy who was heralded as a breath of fresh air after the Ukraine game, we've all seen the clip of that run. Sure his penalty wasn't the best, but warranting abuse? Certainly not.
Bukayo Saka likewise. Against Germany, he was brilliant, he always usually is. He didn't have his best game on Sunday night after coming on as a substitute, but at 19, he's young enough to bounce back from a bad game. He shouldn't need to be bouncing back from a torrent of online abuse, mainly focussing on the colour of his skin.
Marcus Rashford, for all his social work should be lauded by everyone. He's a young lad, from Manchester, living his dream of playing for his boyhood club and his country, all whilst feeding millions of kids who are growing up in lives where their parents are unable to feed them. The work Rashford has done with this is brilliant. And he's one of ours. A proud Englishman, who has stood up for those less fortunate. He is a hero.... And he's now being abused simply based on the colour of his skin, and the fact that his penalty was a couple of inches left of perfection? It sickens me.
I only hope that all three of them, and the rest of the England boys get the support they need. To see them bouncing back will be the best antidote to any of the disgusting abuse they've received over the last few days.
But on to the good. And there has been plenty of it.
As well as some fantastic football, and set against the backdrop of a successful tournament for England, it has been the memories that i mentioned that have made it one of the most enjoyable major tournaments for me.
Watching games in the pub with my fiends and family have been great, but it's at home where I've really felt it.
My 5 year old has fully embraced the tournament fever, walking round the house singing "Three little lions" as he calls it, and "Vindaloo". Watching his excitement as his football sticker album gets closer to completion, the joy on his face when his new England kit arrived, his eagerness to update his wallchart (although he wasn't happy when I was too grumpy to do it on Monday) and seeing him fall in love with both the game, and the national team (especially Declan Rice) has meant that the last month or so has been some of the most joyous times.
Having to isolate midway through the tournament meant that I watched the Ukraine and Germany games at home with him, his excitement when Rice almost scored against Ukraine was unrivalled!
Hearing him wake up the morning after the Semi final and ask to watch the rest of the game after falling asleep at half-time was brilliant. As a dad, I've always dreamt of being able to share football with my kids, and he's really embraced it, and starting to love football. What more could you want?
Even his mum has given in and embraced singing along to Vindaloo rather than just rolling her eyes at me every other summer as we come into another tournament.
And I think his words summed it up perfectly. After Saka's miss, when his Mum explained to him that it meant England had lost, and Italy would be getting the trophy, all he said was "England will try and win it next time" and rolled over and went to sleep.
And they will, and we'll be there supporting them, hoping once again for another major tournament, creating brilliant memories with families and friends.
Because as the song goes... "We Still Believe"
With Euro 2020 now over, we begin looking forward to the imminent FPL Season.
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