Sunday 27 March 2016 11:25, UK
England's fantastic second-half fightback against the world champions in Berlin was a truly memorable performance. But where does it rank in terms of how well England have played in recent years?
Manager Roy Hodgson described the 3-2 win as his best night with England so far, and he was right.
The come-from-behind victory over Sweden at Euro 2012, the Jack Wilshere-inspired 2-1 success against Brazil in 2013, and the 2-0 win in Switzerland to banish the memories of an awful 2014 World Cup were his previous highlights.
True, it wasn't in a major tournament and there were no qualifying points at stake, but English football got a huge lift from Hodgson's young lions.
They should never have been 2-0 down (and the way they conceded the second was a concern), but instead of feeling sorry for themselves England upped their performance levels and swept Germany away on a tide of attacking football.
Eric Dier, Jordan Henderson and especially Dele Alli provided the platform, and Harry Kane, Danny Welbeck and later Jamie Vardy all took full advantage.
Kane's presence of mind to create the first goal for himself and Vardy's wonderfully skilful flick for the equaliser were moments of high class.
After Alli missed a great chance to cap his impressive display with a late winner, England's young team still possessed the confidence to believe they could snatch it.
Dier's powerful header was no more than they deserved. To do all this without Wayne Rooney was also a sign of how quickly England's next generation are developing.
The 5-1 triumph in Munich back in 2001 and the 4-1 win over Holland at Euro 96 are still the high points over the last two decades or so, but this performance wasn't too far behind.
The key now is to build on this, and produce some even better displays - preferably in the knock-out stages of Euro 2016.
