For England and their footballers, it has become a familiar sound. The steady hum of expectation followed by the thump of a reality check landing at their feet.
In major tournament summers, there are rarely any shades of grey and it was this, in part, that Raheem Sterling sat down to address on Sunday.
Despite the undeniable disappointment of a rather stale draw against Scotland on Friday night, the Manchester City winger was keen to underline that England’s position in Group D remains perfectly healthy.
Raheem Sterling believes fans have overreacted to England's performance against Scotland
‘It is tournament football and you can’t expect everything to go your way,’ said Sterling last night.
‘You can’t win every game but at the same time we have to take positives and the positive is we didn’t lose the game and we came out with a point.
‘I feel the fans have an expectation of us and, with the players we have in the squad, that is rightly so.
‘But as you can see from different games in the tournament, not just in our group but other groups as well, it is tricky in international football. It is not as easy as people think.’
Now that each of Euro 2020’s 24 teams have played at least two games, a pattern has emerged. Only Italy, Belgium and Holland won both their opening games. England are not the only major nation — France and Portugal are others — to have followed a promising opening game with something rather less impressive.
What is equally clear, however, is that England now need to improve.
Sterling and his team-mates were booed following the full-time whistle at Wembley
Victory against the Czech Republic on Wednesday is required not only to win the group and give Gareth Southgate’s team a home tie in the last 16 but also to restore the faith of a nation that perhaps saw too many familiar traits of uncertainty return against the Scots.
Sterling added: ‘I do feel there’s a bit of an over-reaction on the whole.
‘I just feel there’s more of a panic on the outside than inside the building.
‘At the same time the players who have been at a few tournaments, who have huge experience, try to help the other ones. I don’t see anyone in the camp that feels any pressure or feels hard done-by.
‘As much as we can inside the building, the best thing we can do is focus on the training field, focus on what’s being done inside. We really shouldn’t be looking at what the papers are saying,
