As England look to clinch their major major football championship in 55 years, thousands of fans converged at the Wembley Stadium on Sunday. The fans sang songs, drank beer and savoured the atmosphere with the football-fandom reaching fever pitch ahead of the Euro 2020 final against Italy.

Hours before the kickoff time of 1900 GMT, fans descended on Wembley Way, the famous approach to the stadium, draped in the red and white flags. Cars blared their horns on the surrounding streets of northwest London, creating a cacophony of noise as the smell of fried meat from street vendors wafted through air thick with red smoke from fans’ flares, reports AFP.

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The English football fans also gathered at several other parts of London, including the Leicester Square. This is on of the biggest occassion in decades for British football fans. The country has not made it to the finals of a major football championship since they won the final 1966.

A large screen has been set up near Trafalgar Square, which is expected to host 1,500 fans who won tickets via a ballot. There was massive celebration at the venue after England defeated Denmark in the semifinal on Wednesday.

Pictures posted on social media showed long lines of people queuing to get into pubs from south London to Northern England.

Wembley Way was clogged by early afternoon, with high-spirited supporters dancing in the streets, climbing up poles and setting off fireworks.

The owner of a restaurant in southwest England shelled out 2,700 pounds to get his son to witness the spectacle. “I want my son to experience the atmosphere… it was not something I wanted to miss,” Mark Bennett told AFP, also mentioning that his son would be missing school on Monday.

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“I want my son to experience the atmosphere… it was not something I wanted to miss,” he told AFP, confiding his son would be missing school Monday.

“It would mean everything to me, it’s what you dream of,” he added of an England victory. “This is the biggest day I will ever have in football.”