England Fans Keep Singing An Hour After Final Whistle And Refuse To Leave Stadium

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Football matches get played regularly and often… but the World Cup is only once every four years.

So when your team is winning, the celebrations are understandably that bit more intense and jubilant, full of national pride and with high hopes for the future.

While most of us have enjoyed the games from our sofas, round at a mate’s house, in the pub or on the big screens in city centres (or having a live stream open while you’re at work…) some people have been lucky enough to witness the action live in Russia, where the matches are being played.

Being the great footballing nation that England is – it’s less a sport, more a religion over here – when the national side is doing well, and as a fan you’re fortunate enough to be in the stadium where the action is happening live, celebrations are inevitably going to be bigger and better than usual.

So to the Samara Arena, where England clashed with Sweden and came out on top in a brilliant 2-0 victory.

As the Swedish fans shuffled away from the stadium, the England contingency stayed behind for an hour after the final whistle, singing and cheering their hearts out.

Check out the scenes:

Manager Gareth Southgate even came back out on the pitch to conduct the supporters’ choir:

Well, as Robbie would say, sing when you’re winning. And Southgate and the squad have certainly been doing that (except for that game against Belgium, but still…)

Elsewhere in the tournament, fans have stayed behind in the stadiums after their teams have played not to carry on singing, but to do some very considerate cleaning up.

Following their dramatic 2-1 win over Poland in the group stages, a portion of Senegal supporters stayed behind in the stadium to help clean up the mess which had been left.

As Poland fans fled the stadium, disappointed with their team’s performance, the other side rolled up their sleeves and pitched in to help with the tidy-up.

Their actions have been praised on social media, with some people calling it a mark of respect and how fans of all nations in the tournament should behave.

One person tweeted:

Senegal fans cleaning up their part of the stadium after their victory against Poland is the best thing you’ll see today.

However, Senegal aren’t the only conscientious country, as some of Japan’s fans also stayed behind after their match against Colombia to clean up.

While Panama fans, after their brutal 6-1 loss against England, also stayed at the stadium to do their fair share.

It seems like football fans are getting almost as much attention as the games themselves, and rightly so. The matches have so far thrown up some thrilling moments, including shock departures from the likes of Germany and Argentina.

After their victory over Sweden, England will now face Croatia in the semi-final on Wednesday, July 11, kick off 19:00 BST. Croatia came out on top after a tense penalty shoot-out versus Russia in the quarters, but have played two full periods of extra time en route to doing so.

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Charlie Cocksedge

Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.