Three Lions, 1000 games - Telegraph Sport's writers pick their most memorable England matches

England play their 1,000th senior men's international on Thursday, when a Wembley win over Montenegro would book a spot at Euro 2020 ahead of their final Group A qualifier in Kosovo on Sunday.

With no major honours to brag about since winning the 1966 World Cup on home soil, amid the highs and lows of following the Three Lions, we have have asked our football writers to pick their most memorable match of their years covering England.

Here are the matches they chose...

Paul Hayward

Croatia 2 England 4 - June 21, 2004

Everyone says the 2004 side should have won that year's European Championship, forgetting that a 2-1 group stage defeat to France betrayed familiar failings. But the team who beat Croatia 4-2 was, on paper, one of the best since 1966, with Wayne Rooney announcing himself to the world in an outfield 10 of Gary Neville, John Terry, Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Paul Scholes, Michael Owen and Rooney (David James in goal was less stellar). The 'golden generation' seldom looked so good, until England's penalty taking curse struck again in a quarter-final against Portugal. The reason for nominating a group game that ultimately led nowhere fast is the promise England showed against Croatia - and the quality of that starting line-up. What a waste.

Jason Burt

England 1 Iceland 2 - June 28, 2016

The headline on the front of The Daily Telegraph’s sports section said it all: England’s greatest humiliation. And it felt like that as Roy Hodgson’s side produced the most confused and ineffective performance to exit Euro 2016 and end his time in charge as manager as he quit at the final whistle. England had been poor throughout the tournament, winning just one of their four games, with players out-of-form, shot of confidence, Harry Kane taking corners and Marcus Rashford under-used. It felt like a new low. It was worse in fact than losing to the USA in the 1950 World Cup. The atmosphere inside the stadium in Nice reflected that. It was like a stunned sense of shock; that England were frozen in time and unable to cope as they headed towards what felt like an inevitable defeat once Iceland, who had fallen behind to an early penalty, took the lead. It was shocking, painful embarrassing. The only way was up and thankfully that has proved to be the case.

Matt Law

Colombia 1 England 1 (England win 4-3 on pens) - July 3, 2018

As a rule, journalists remain impartial and there have been numerous occasions when I’ve sat on my hands covering Aston Villa games in which they have scored and even more times when I’ve stared into the middle distance when my boyhood club have conceded. But press box etiquette went out of the window, when this World Cup last-16 game went to penalties and the nation took a collective gulp at the prospect of more spot-kick heartache. One of my biggest memories of the game is that I was strangely confident England would win this penalty shoot-out, even when Jordan Henderson had his kick saved. The combination of joy, relief and the thought that maybe, just maybe England could go on and win the World Cup made it impossible not to celebrate when Eric Dier converted his penalty to send Gareth Southgate’s team into the quarter-finals. England had officially become fun again and it was certainly great to be there to witness it.

Sam Wallace

Croatia 2 England 4 - June 21, 2004

This was a performance that should have been the basis for so much more than another quarter-final defeat. It is remembered most for Rooney’s two goals and the emergence of him as the pre-eminent England player at the age of 18, prompting Manchester United to sign him on his return from Portugal. But the Euro 2004 squad was the peak of the Sven Goran Eriksson years with quality in every position, and a team drawn from those players who had – or would – play in the successful Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool sides of that decade. It felt like the start of something but looking back it was as good as it got. Four years later, the England team would not even qualify for the European championships. Croatian journalists often say that their side that day was remarkably poor and was itself on the brink of change. But England were magnificent, by any measure – and the future was full of hope.

Jeremy Wilson

England 2 Croatia 3 - November 21, 2007

Memorable for the wrong reasons but an extraordinary match that ended Steve McClaren’s reign as manager and was arguably seismic for English football. A huge pre-match downpour felt immediately ominous, especially on a playing surface already disfigured by American football and controversy over the selection of 22-year-old goalkeeper Scott Carson. Brolly in hand, McClaren saw his team fall 2-0 down within 15 minutes before Mladen Petric's clinical finish ended a brief David Beckham-inspired fightback and ensured no England at Euro 2008. It also drew a line under an era of under-achievement by the so-called ‘golden generation’. The Football Association again looked overseas in their appointment of a new manager and, while Fabio Capello fared little better, there have since been significant strides forward in the coaching culture of young English footballers. The fear-factor that then seemed so oppressive for the national team has also been brilliantly addressed by Gareth Southgate.

Jim White

England 4 Holland 1 - June 18, 1996

It was the look on Alan Shearer’s face when the fourth goal went in that summed it all up: rarely can we have seen such a smirk of delighted amazement. And he was not alone. Everyone in Wembley felt much the same. Here were England playing football of panache and precision not against anyone but against the Netherlands. We had long had an inferiority complex about Dutch football, assuming Cruyff and his successors were on a different level to us. But this was England not only beating them, but out-skilling them. What a team we had on our hands. It surely augured well. Many of us left the stadium that afternoon convinced that finally the wait for silverware was over, 30 years of hurt would be about to end. How wrong we were.