After silent fury and schadenfreude, there’s harmony at home as England face Germany

I married a German and quietly seethed through their triumphs – until my late mother in law showed me watching football need not be so fraught

The story of my marriage through England v Germany football rivalry begins in 1990. I was living in Rio de Janeiro and throwing myself with wild abandon into the Brazilian way of celebrating the beautiful game. I watched that World Cup penalty shootout in an English pub in Ipanema and then went home to call the handsome German I’d met a year earlier, the tension of the match soon dissolving in good-humoured teasing on both sides.

Little did I know then that those early flirty exchanges about our teams’ contrasting fortunes would give way to a far more sinister rivalry in years to follow – I am talking about me, not him.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2U4I6SD