Kalvin Phillips wants Germany game to start winning run before World Cup

Kalvin Phillips needs little encouragement to look back on the heady, giddily celebratory summer evening that transpired last time England faced Germany. They were riding a wave at Euro 2020 and so was he: it was only the midfielder’s 10th cap and, after a tentative start, he produced the kind of insistent, driving performance that had become integral to the national team so quickly.

“It was an unbelievable day,” he says of the 2-0 win at Wembley. “I’ve still got memories of it, and the reaction after as well. It was one of the best games I’ve been involved in; hopefully we can have the same game in the next few days and get another good result.”

That is not beyond England, even if appearances in Budapest on Saturday suggested otherwise. Phillips, 26, had little time to set into Hungary as a late substitute but is expected to play from the beginning against Hansi Flick’s side. While he roared into the European Championship, this time it feels like more of a standing start.

Last year Phillips arrived off the back of an outstanding personal and collective season with a Leeds side that won hearts under Marcelo Bielsa; the backdrop to this summer’s Nations League challenges has been a relegation battle that was navigated by a hair’s breadth and a campaign in which he missed 16 games with hamstring trouble.

“Obviously last season we were playing really well as a team and [this time] we had some difficult periods with results,” he says. “I think I read a stat the other day that said Leeds had the most players missing with injury through the season. But right at the end it was all worth it, we stayed up and that was a great feeling as well.”

The chances are he will channel it for good. If the shoot-out defeat to Italy is not