England made the perfect start to their Euro 2020 campaign against Croatia on Sunday afternoon.

The Three Lions entered the game at Wembley Stadium facing the side that knocked them out of the 2018 World Cup and without an opening day win at European Championships in their history.

However, England proved all of the doubters wrong with a mature and considered performance against the Croatians, muscling their way to a 1-0 win courtesy of Raheem Sterling's strike.

England 1-0 Croatia

It was a result that brought millions of England fans to their feet mere hours after many of them had widely criticised the team selection of Gareth Southgate.

Great swathes of supporters were perturbed with Kieran Trippier playing at left-back, Tyrone Mings getting the nod at centre-half and Sterling playing ahead of Marcus Rashford and Jack Grealish.

Amusingly, all three players proceeded to drop fantastic performances, but arguably the most eye-catching display of all came from Leeds United's Kalvin Phillips in midfield.

England 1-0 Croatia Match Highlights (Football Terrace)

Phillips impresses vs Croatia

There was widespread concern that playing Phillips alongside Declan Rice would be far too negative, but the 25-year-old was nothing short of inspirational between the two penalty areas.

When he wasn't setting the tempo with an immaculate bunch of passes - not misplacing a single one during the first-half - he was breaking up Croatia's play with disruptive and canny tackles.

However, most impressive of all was Phillips' galvanising run that ultimately led to Sterling's winner, cutting through the midfield like a knife through butter and perfectly laying on the killer pass.

Phillips' heroic highlights

As such, Phillips was rightfully considered as many people's Man of the Match under the Wembley arch and it's a suspicion that's effectively confirmed by his domineering individual highlights.

Twitter user @HMDComps clearly wanted the world to appreciate Phillips' brilliance against Croatia and stitched together the Leeds hero's best moments into a fantastic two-minute compilation.

So, before you celebrate the fact that 'it's coming home' with a few too many beers, be sure to check out Phillips' energetic performance in all its glory down below:

The 'Yorkshire Pirlo', ladies and gentlemen.

Massive positives for England

Although Southgate's selections might raise our eyebrows from time to time, it really goes to show that the England boss has plenty of method behind what many perceive to be 'madness'.

Sure, England playing both Rice and Phillips might have meant that England's opener wasn't edge of the seat stuff, but there's no denying that it worked a treat when it came to nullifying Croatia.

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As such, England have - on paper, at least - claimed the scalp of the toughest opponents in their group and enter clashes with Scotland and the Czech Republic with confidence levels high.

And why not when Phillips' midfield masterclass was of one of several top-level performances from the Three Lions this afternoon?