The histories of England and Germany, footballing and otherwise, are so intertwined that it’s difficult to look back on a single moment in them as resonate to the present ahead of their Euro 2020 Round of 16 clash at Wembley. But there might be one – and it happened almost 25 years ago to the day.

Euro 1996. The semifinals. Wembley. England versus Germany.

Alan Shearer sends the England crowd into rapture almost right from kick-off. Paul Gascoigne’s corner is flicked on by Tony Adams and the Newcastle man is there to head home in the third minute. The joy is short-lived, though. Only 13 minutes later, Stefan Kuntz evens matters.

The scoreline would hold all the way until penalties. England scored on its first five attempts. Die Mannschaft did the same. Into sudden death, England manager Terry Venables sends Aston Villa defender Gareth Southgate to the spot. He runs up and shoots left. Germany keeper Andreas Kopke guesses right. He dives left and easily saves the attempt. With a chance to win it, Borussia Dortmund Andreas Moller hammered a shot into the top of the net, giving David Seaman no chance at all, taking Germany to the final.

On Tuesday, Southgate has the chance to make things right 25 years later, but knows his team must work for it.

"They've been in an incredibly tough qualifying group and the quality of the matches and the standard of the opponent has been really high so that will have prepared them for big matches straight away,” Southgate said of Die Mannschaft. “And they also have huge big-match experience: four World Cup winners, numerous Champions League winners, so they’re a very accomplished team."

Southgate says he can’t really understand where the criticism of this Germany team is coming from.

"Although I keep reading lots of negative comments about them, I see a team that’s well-prepared, tactically know what they are doing, that work together, so we know it's a really, really tough game for us,” Southgate said.

England captain Harry Kane believes all of the positive talk leading up to the match is worthless if the Three Lions can’t deliver.

"We'll be put to the test [Tuesday] and that's what it's all about,” Kane said. “We can talk about the game as much as we want in the build-up but it's about going out there and performing on the pitch in front of millions of people. A lot of us have been doing it for clubs and a lot of the younger players in the team have been doing it for their club. So, yeah, now it's just about taking it onto the international stage and we'll be doing everything we can to try and win the game."

Germany defender Robin Gosens is aware of what his team has to do to neutralize England’s biggest asset.

"England's strength is certainly their unbelievable pace up front,” the Atalanta man said. “For me, this probably means that defensive work will be our first port of call. If our defence is compact and we can limit England's attacks, we'll be able to create something going forward. It will work out, I am sure of it."

Both England and Spain will undoubtedly be aware that their path to the final potentially got easier with the elimination of the Netherlands on Sunday from their side of the bracket. The winner of this match will be heavily favoured to reach the July 11 final, also at Wembley.

Historically, Germany has a slight edge over England, posting a mark of 15-4-13. The last time these two teams met in an international tournament was at the 2010 World Cup, also in the Round of 16, and it was a day for the Three Lions to forget.  In front of just over 40,000 people in Bloemfontein, South Africa, Die Mannschaft romped to a 4-1 win with Thomas Muller bagging a brace.

POTENTIAL ENGLAND XI: Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire, Shaw; Phillips, Rice; Grealish; Sterling, Foden, Kane

POTENTIAL GERMANY XI: Neuer; Ginter, Hummels, Rudiger; Kimmich, Kroos, Goretzka, Gosens; Sane, Gnabry, Havertz