England vs. Italy in Euro 2020 final: 'A moment we feared might never happen'
Roy Hodgson sat behind a desk in Chantilly uttering the words that would become his epitaph as England manager: "I don't really know what I'm doing here."

Hodgson meant he did not understand why he was being forced to attend a press conference the day after he had resigned following the humiliating defeat by Iceland in the last 16 of Euro 2016 in France.

However, it was a comment that worked on many levels.

It perhaps reflected the scrambled state of mind of a decent man and manager who had presided over possibly England's worst ever performance.

This is what England do to you. They offer hope, despair, optimism, pessimism, elation, misery. Quite often in the space of the same 90 minutes.

Five years on from the embarrassment of Nice, England have the chance to experience their biggest high since the 1966 World Cup win when they face Italy in the Euro 2020 final at Wembley Stadium.

This is the moment many England fans, and those of us who track these events at close quarters, thought we would never see.

Is this landmark day going to be glorious payback for the years of falling short? A nation turns its eyes to Gareth Southgate and England.

Observing England may be many things but it is never dull, especially for those of us who have travelled this particular road in one form or another for 25 years.

It was an ominous sign that the first England game I covered, in a previous journalistic life, was the agonising loss on penalties to Germany in the Euro 96 semi-final. It was perfect preparation for events to come.

I have covered England for the BBC at every major tournament since 2002 and, as would become a regular occurrence, there was plenty of optimism on the flight to Osaka's Kansai Airport.

And, apart from at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and this glorious delayed Euro 2020, it was misplaced.

The Japanese city of Sapporo provided the high point of England's 2002 World Cup campaign, hosting a victory for Sven-Goran Eriksson's side against Argentina under the Superdome, all played out amid lingering resentment from the South Americans' acrimonious victory over England on penalties at France 1998.

The morning after the night before, one unwitting England reporter making his exit mistakenly jumped on to the waiting Argentina team bus.

No names - let us say for the sake of this story that it was the Press Association's legendary England scribe John Curtis - but he greeted a still boiling mad Argentina striker Gabriel Batistuta with the unwise words: "Sorry Gabriel mate. England media bus. You need to get off and get on your own bus."

Cue this poor unfortunate being manhandled off the coach and bundled into the hotel foyer, closely followed by his luggage, to the strains of a Mexican mariachi band entertaining the guests.

But the laughs did not last long. Elimination came with a quarter-final loss to eventual champions Brazil, the sight of a slowly backpedalling David Seaman still clear in the mind's eye as Ronaldinho's free-kick looped over him. The veteran was later ushered past the waiting media in tears, accompanied by a Football Association representative.

Qualification has always been relatively straightforward and competitions difficult but Euro 2004 must always be regarded as the one that got away under Eriksson's laid-back, star struck regime.

A superb England team was bolstered by the emergence of Everton's explosive teenage superstar Wayne Rooney as the tournament was engulfed by "Roo-mania".

The phenomenon captured global attention, calls being taken from all parts of the world seeking the flimsiest piece of unknown information about the England striker.

Those of us who attended the same school as him, much earlier obviously, basked in this reflected glory when asked to tell his story.