I know it’s been close to 36 hours, but I’m sure there are still many long faces in England.

That’s OK – English fans dared to dream, they got well and truly into the spirit of ‘it’s coming home’, and then they saluted a team that had already far exceeded expectations.

It’s Croatia who is down to appear in Sunday’s showcase against the French, thanks to an extra-time winner by Mario Mandzukic. As you can imagine, that goal was greeted by wild celebrations both on and off the field, and one photographer was right in the thick of it.

Not that Yuri Cortez was prevented from doing his job, as the BBC reports:

Teammates piled in after the man behind the winning goal and Cortez disappeared beneath the team.

“They just kept coming towards me and they fell on me!” he says.

Ever the professional, he picked up his camera and snapped the finalists close up, while colleagues in turn photographed the Salvadorean inside the pile…

“I was just changing my lens as the players ran towards me,” the photographer told AFP news agency later.

All’s well that ends well, and it made for some great shots:

A video from the corner of the ground where the action went down:

He even got a kiss on the noggin for his troubles.

[source:bbc]