Defiant Gareth Southgate has made Gary Lineker and his fellow rabble-rousers look foolish, writes OLIVER HOLT

It felt like a kind of bedlam in the tunnel area at the Westfalenstadion on Wednesday night.

Support staff loaded equipment on to the team coaches as they sat idling on the concrete, camera crews rushed hither and thither and Virgil van Dijk, the Netherlands captain, stood grim-faced in front of a melee of reporters as he answered questions about the dismay of losing to Ollie Watkins’s brilliant last-gasp winner.

At the far end of the tunnel, groups of England supporters pressed their faces between the thick bars of steel gates, much as their team had pressed their faces against the glass of this tournament for its first five matches, trying to get a glimpse of where all the action was happening.

Catering staff clanked by, pushing empty metal trolleys and, sporadically, the fans broke into song as they began to plan their journey here to the German capital, where England will try to end 58 years of hurt in Sunday’s final against a wonderful Spain side who have been the best team in the tournament.

‘Don’t take me home, please don’t take me home, I just don’t wanna go to work,’ they yelled. ‘I wanna stay here and drink all your beer, so please don’t, please don’t take me home.’

After a little while, Gareth Southgate emerged into this scene of industry and tumult and exultation and misery and walked along the line behind a cordon to speak to English reporters. There was something different about the England manager. There was a lightness to his step. Southgate had been under siege and now he looked as a man looks when that siege is lifted.

There has not been an awful lot of levity about Southgate in this European Championship because, in truth, much of England’s play has not lent itself to levity. But that changed dramatically during his side’s last-gasp victory over the Dutch and Southgate’s demeanour reflected that.

Suddenly, vindication and relief are his companions. He even laughed at one point. That, too, has been rare as he has tried to deal with the avalanche of opprobrium that has been sent his way in the last few weeks, particularly by high-profile broadcasters such as the BBC’s lead presenter Gary Lineker, and by idiots on social media. He has tried to shield his players from the worst of it.

Maybe Lineker will apologise to him at some point for calling the England team s*** after their performance against Denmark in the group phase. He should. Neither Southgate nor skipper Harry Kane nor any of England’s players should be above robust criticism, but that kind of language, that kind of ridicule, turned the atmosphere against the team toxic.

It was no coincidence that, at the following game, against Slovenia in Cologne, plastic beer cups were thrown at Southgate after England’s draw had secured them top spot in the group.

Lineker played to the rabble with that comment. He, and a host of other clamouring, guffawing, giggling, gurning football celebrity podcasters clamber over each other in their desperation to reach the summit of a mountain of inanities that is their idea of entertainment by making ever more outlandish statements. They compete in a soundbite arms race.

Calling an England team who have reached two finals and a semi-final in their last four tournaments s*** might have seemed like a good way of going viral at the time. Now, however, Lineker is looking rather foolish. He aimed his insults at what has turned out to be the first England men’s side to reach the final of a major tournament abroad.

It took a long time for the clouds spread by those comments to lift but now they have. It feels as if the pressure is off. England have defied their critics just by getting to the final, and now they are there no one really expects them to beat the brilliant Lamine Yamal and his team-mates.

So England will go into the match in the Olympiastadion on Sunday like a team who have been liberated. They have been freed from the yoke of public opinion. And now they are beginning to play like the team we hoped we would see when they arrived in Germany a little over a month ago.

‘When we have the supporters with us, as they are now, the energy that brings and the lift that brings to everything is immense,’ said Southgate.

England are peaking at the right time but Southgate laughed when someone suggested his side might have an advantage over Spain because of the experience of all the adversity England have overcome.

‘They have won a few trophies, though, so…’ Southgate said, allowing his answer to trail off with a broad smile.

‘Spain are rightly favourites for what they have done during this tournament. They have been the best team. They have got a day longer to prepare for the final and in the last three finals, maybe more, that has been quite significant, so we have got to get our recovery spot-on.

‘Look, we are doing well but they are a bloody good side. Let’s pitch it right. We have got to be perfect to win this game and we will have to find everything that we have got within us. But we are in there.

‘A lot of this group have been together for a while and this new group, that has formed so well, has learned so much from these six games already.

‘And we’ve got players who have played lots of big matches, so they will know what is required on the night. When needed, they have all been ready.’

When another question offered him the chance to claim personal vindication from the victory over the Dutch and qualification for a second successive European Championship final, Southgate did not take it. He is smart enough to know he did not need to. Wednesday night took him to a point where his results can speak for themselves.

So England will come here to Berlin on Saturday with the wind at their backs at last and a feeling that, having survived so much, having stared down elimination time and time again with a steely eye, anything is possible. Even against Spain.