What a month it has been. Thousands of miles travelled by car across Germany, taking in the sites and service stations of the Rhine area and beyond.
The expectation levels had never been higher heading into a tournament, with pundits, bookmakers and journalists like myself branding Gareth Southgate‘s team as favourites.
Building up to the first group game against Serbia in Gelsenkirchen that confidence was echoed by the travelling fans.
“We’ll get through the group stages easy”, “I can see us winning every game”, “we’ve got the best attack in world football” is what some fans I spoke to told me in interviews outside the ground.
A laboured 1-0 win thanks to Jude Bellingham’s first-half goal followed.
Still, the belief was there heading into the second group game against Denmark.
But the performance in the 1-1 draw in Frankfurt seemed to change everything.
Southgate was criticised for the way he set his team up.
An experiment that saw Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander Arnold playing in midfield was ended with his half-time substitution. The play was flat, tepid and underwhelming.
Gary Lineker called the display “s**t”, with fellow ex-England captain Alan Shearer saying it was “rotten”.
The mood got worse after the goalless draw with Slovenia in Cologne, even though England had secured top spot in the group.
Again, there was a lack of fluency and cohesion.
With 10 minutes to go in their round of 16 match against Slovakia, England were trailing 1-0.
I, like many other broadcast journalists, had left our seats to move to a position to break the news “England are out in embarrassing fashion”.
Plenty of fans were also leaving early. Disappointed and dissatisfied, heading for the tram back to town.
It’s that short period where it feels like the tournament changed for Southgate’s squad.
A magnificent overhead kick in the 94th minute from superstar Bellingham took the game to extra-time. Then Harry Kane scored the winner to secure a 2-1 victory.
Southgate praised the “resilience and belief” from his players at full-time and urged the nation to “back the team”.
There was a different feeling. Nobody doubted England had got away with a poor performance, but it felt like a weight had been lifted.
The quarter-final brought another nail-biting penalty shootout. Again, I had to leave my seat before the winning spot-kick. Instead, watching it through my closed fingers in the media area.
I shouldn’t have been worried. They were five of the best penalties you’ll ever see taken optimised by the coolness of Ivan Toney not even looking at the ball as he stroked it into the bottom corner.
Next was a journey to Dortmund for the semi-final. The city was taken over by the orange army creating an atmosphere unlike any I’ve experienced before.
Thousands of Netherlands fans had made the short journey across the border. It felt like England would be up against it.
What transpired in the stadium was England produced their best performance of the competition.
Phil Foden proved why he was named the Premier League’s player of the season – pulling the strings throughout
And despite falling behind, I never felt England would lose.
Kane was given a 50-50 penalty decision to equalise.
And they booked their place in the final with another late moment of magic.
Super sub Ollie Watkins firing in a goal to seal a 2-1 success.
The previous angst had given way to joy and excitement to what now might be in store.
England’s base camp in Blankenhain was surrounded with an air of belief.
Players speaking to us in a media centre erected in the walls of an ancient castle built in 1150 told us of the “confidence”, “togetherness” and “faith” they had in each other.
Southgate said he “wasn’t a believer in fairy tales, but he is a believer in dreams”.
It all had me fantasising that England could actually lift the trophy.
That was despite them coming up against a Spain side who had taken the tournament by storm.
I wasn’t the only one – as supporters on mass made their way to Germany’s capital city.
Some paying thousands of pounds for flights, others driving for hours on end, and one set of fans I encountered even cycling from Bristol.
Even those without tickets wanted to be here for the moment.
Unfortunately, it never came. A night so familiar.
Spain’s young wonders Lamine Yamal – who turned 17 on Saturday – and Nico Williams combined to given them a 1-0 lead.
Substitute Cole Palmer equalised. The one moment of euphoria for those wearing white.
But Mikel Oyarzabal’s late winner sunk England to a deserved defeat. The best side of the tournament victorious for a record fourth time at a Euros.
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It was difficult to broadcast my full-time report. Devastated and emotional supporters streamed past me on the perimeter of the stadium angry and emotional with another bitter loss.
Many didn’t want to talk and of the ones that did, the constant theme was to the manager – “Thank you, Gareth – it’s been an amazing period, but it’s time to move on”.
Time will tell whether Southgate, who the FA want to keep on until the World Cup in 2026, will depart his role or not.
But I, like everyone else, leave Germany with a sense of what could have been… again.
