Eric Dier credits England’s Nations League joy for improving Wembley atmosphere

“That is the best atmosphere there has been while I have been playing for the national team,” Eric Dier said in the giddy hours after England’s rousing comeback victory over Croatia. “And to be honest, after the World Cup, I feel that is the kind of atmosphere that we deserve here at Wembley.”

Against all the odds, the Nations League may just have saved international football. When it was first announced by former Uefa president Michael Platini, it was immediately derided as a confusing extravagance in an already prohibitively congested fixture list. And yet the inaugural tournament has proven to be a huge success, extending the sun-kissed World Cup euphoria long into the cold winter months.

Even Wembley – that curiously soulless bowl of a stadium – was rocking on Sunday, as late goals from Jesse Lingard and Harry Kane fired England into next summer's Nations League Finals in Porto. An excitable crowd of 78,221 cheered England on before singing along to a mocking burst of Three Lions upon the final whistle, and Dier feels that energetic support is hard-earned.

“We got the atmosphere I think we deserved today and hopefully it can continue to be like that here,” Dier said. “It was a fantastic feeling at the end between us and the fans. Hopefully we can continue to build on that and play the kind of football that the fans enjoy to watch. And hopefully we can continue to build that special relationship.”

It hasn’t always been like this of course. Dier, England’s third most experienced starter against Croatia behind only Raheem Sterling and Kyle Walker, is a veteran of the doomed Euro 2016 campaign, when a 2-1 loss to Iceland saw confidence in the national team plummet to a historic low.

But under the shrewd pragmatism of Gareth Southgate, England have finally started to win back hearts and minds. An entirely unexpected fourth-place finish in Russia reawakened expectation, with the 2019 Nations League Finals presenting the team with another opportunity to demonstrate the progress they have made.

Dier is a fan of the new tournament and the atmosphere it has helped generate, and hopes that the pedigree of recent matches will have converted any early naysayers.

“Honestly, anything new or anything different, there will always be negatives and positives. And there will always be people putting it down. That is normal with anything new.

“But I think it has proven to be something really, really positive and I enjoy watching other international games now. For me it’s much better than just playing friendlies and we would never have created the atmosphere like we did at Wembley. Now we get the chance to play in a semi-final after playing against some incredible opponents in really competitive environments.”

Victory next summer in Portugal – where Dier moved to with his family when he was seven years old, before returning to sign for Tottenham 13-years later – is now the new goal of a youthful side firmly in the ascendancy. Dier added that the entire team made a pact to build on their impressive World Cup appearance – rather than settle for what they had achieved.

“The next international camp was almost straight after the World Cup,” he said. “And the manager made it very clear to us that we could go in two directions.

“We could either settle for what we had done at the World Cup or we could continue to build something special. And we have taken that second route and hopefully we can continue to do that. Everybody is on board and we want to carry on getting better – and we really believe we can do that.”