AFTER the mass hysteria which enveloped the second-round win against Germany, England have to find a completely different form of motivation to beat Ukraine in Rome to claim their place in the semi-finals.

There will be no army of painted faces in the stands, no endless loops of Three Lions to get the patriotism pumping, nor an opposition saddled with any form of expectancy whatsoever.

This will be a cold, hard, hit if Gareth Southgate’s men are to achieve it. And you can only hope that the nervousness they showed during spells of the game at Wembley on Tuesday is now out of their system.

Although Ukraine is a vast country with a perfectly serviceable record of producing players, their record in major tournaments has been poor compared to their record in qualifying.

People will point to the fact they have earned results against France, Portugal and Spain in the last two years but they have also been held by Kazakhstan at home, humbled by Switzerland and even managed to draw a friendly against Bahrain.

They were lucky to get through the groups, grabbing a couple of goals in defeat against the wide-open Dutch, they qualified by virtue of beating North Macedonia 2-1, which was not the most convincing performance for those Euro hard-nuts who tuned in.

The performance against Sweden was much better, as was their standard of football against a side which seemed happy to sit off and let them play. Whether they have the individual genius needed to beat England when they – theoretically – do not see as much of the ball, I have my doubts.

But then hubris really is the one thing that can stop England right now. If any sign of over-confidence seeps into the dressing room, then we could have another Iceland on our hands.

How we laughed in 2016 as those plucky Icelandic fans did the thunder-clap thing, which was infinitely preferable to the summer’s other terrace anthem about someone called Will Grigg being on fire (presumably why he remained on the Northern Irish bench all summer, must have been a health and safety risk).

We spun off clever stats about the size of the Icelandic population and dusted off our old Bjork CDs to remind us what ‘wacky guys’ they were, but not once did we think Roy Hodgson’s side would be so soundly beaten.

That result, and the ensuing nonsense with Sam Allardyce, put me off international football for a couple of years. And then Gareth Southgate came along, the tune changed to Atomic Kitten, and things were better again.

Everyone, myself included, have had their reservations about the current England boss but there can be few out there who dispute he has put a different image on the national team and made them so much easier to like again – even with a brand of Tesco No Frills football that seems incongruous with the available attacking talent.

It has got to the stage now where style doesn’t really matter. If England can rid themselves of that underachiever tag, then perhaps we can worry about winning the World Cup in style instead?

All that matters in Rome is the result. I am not sure I can ever truly enjoy an England game, which is partly why I took on the responsibility of writing this column.

It gives me something to distract my thoughts when I would otherwise be venting my fury into social media at yet another wasted set piece.

This Euros has become entirely about the destination. How we get there is no longer a matter of debate. Just as long as we don’t have to go to penalties. 

Please. Not penalties.