‘Magnificent’: World Cup winner Hurst among England greats to laud team on quarter-final win

England legend Geoff Hurst, who won the World Cup in 1966, scoring a hat-trick in the final, has congratulated Gareth Southgate and his team on their “magnificent” win over Sweden in the quarter-final in Russia.

Hurst was part of the team that claimed England’s only World Cup victory to date on home soil in that famous summer of 1966, scoring a hat-trick in a 4-2 win against West Germany.

READ MORE: England overpower limited Sweden to return to World Cup semis for first time since 1990

The 76-year-old tweeted his congratulations after the Three Lions beat Sweden 2-0 in Samara thanks to a first-half header from defender and Harry Maguire and a second-half headed finish from Dele Alli.  

Hurst was just one of a host of former England greats to praise the team.

England icon Paul Gascoigne starred when the team last reached the semi-finals in 1990, tweeting that he was Russia-bound now that the Three Lions had reached the last four.

Former England striker Alan Shearer, who suffered World Cup agony in 1998 when the team exited in the last 16 at the hands of Argentina on penalties, tweeted a picture with the World Cup and the oft-repeated refrain that maybe football was “coming home”….

Rio Ferdinand, who reached the quarter-finals in 2002, when England went down to a 2-1 defeat to Brazil, tweeted “big respect” to the team.

Former England stopper Peter Shilton, the Three Lions’ most-capped player, and who was part of the team that lost on penalties in the semi-final in 1990, reserved special praise for current ‘keeper Jordan Pickford.

Pickford pulled off three stops to keep England in front during the game against Sweden, following up on his penalty-saving heroics against Colombia in the last 16.    

England play their semi-final at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium on Wednesday, when they meet the winners of Saturday’s second quarter-final between hosts Russia and Croatia.