England striker Harry Kane celebrates scoring against Germany at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday in London, England. Photo: VCG

 
England beat Germany 2-0 on Tuesday to reach the Euro 2020 quarterfinals and end decades of hurt against their bitter rivals, setting up a showdown with Ukraine for a place in the last four.

Raheem Sterling broke the deadlock at Wembley with a quarter of an hour remaining and Harry Kane finally opened his tournament account to end the contest.

England beat the Germans to win the 1966 World Cup final on home soil but their major tournament history has been littered with painful exits against them since.

They were eliminated from the 1970, 1990 and 2010 World Cups by Germany, who also beat them in the Euro 96 semifinals at Wembley.

The Germans, who have won the European Championship three times in their illustrious history, had chances to score, notably a first-half effort by Timo Werner and a golden late chance for Thomas Mueller, but lacked a cutting edge.

England, who themselves looked short of inspiration for much of the contest, finally broke the deadlock when Luke Shaw crossed for Sterling to finish from close range, notching his third goal of the competition.

Mueller should have equalized when Kai Havertz's pass sent him clean through, but the Bayern Munich star rolled his shot wide and fell to the turf in dismay.

Kane made Germany pay in the 86th minute as he finished off a lethal England counterattack with a diving header past Manuel Neuer from substitute Jack Grealish's cross.

That was the first goal of the tournament for the Tottenham man, who has been a shadow of the player who won the Golden Boot at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

"It's a brilliant afternoon," England boss Gareth Southgate told the BBC. "We talked about bringing enjoyment to the nation really and afternoons like this are what that's about."

England, World Cup semifinalists three years ago, have been solid if unspectacular this tournament but they have yet to concede a goal and the draw is opening up invitingly for them.

They head to Rome on Saturday for a quarterfinal against Ukraine, who defeated Sweden 2-1 after extra time in Glasgow thanks to a 121st-minute winner from Artem Dovbyk.

Oleksandr Zinchenko put Ukraine ahead at Hampden but Emil Forsberg equalized for Sweden before the break with his fourth goal in three games. 

Serhiy Sydorchuk hit the post for Ukraine in the second half while Forsberg twice struck the woodwork, but the dismissal of Marcus Danielson gave Ukraine the initiative late on.

The Sweden center-back was sent off on 98 minutes when his studs caught Artem Besedin's knee with his follow-through, a yellow card changed to red after a VAR review.

As penalties loomed, Dovbyk stooped to head in a Zinchenko cross and snatch victory for Ukraine.