England defeat the Dutch to secure place in Euro Final

Photo: Stephen Gormley (Red Eye Photo Agency)

England won 2-1 against The Netherlands in the Euro 2024 semi final in Dortmund to setup final against Spain

The Dutch started the fastest out of the blocks on a wet and thundery night in Dortmund. Rice got caught out with the ball from midfield by Schouten who passed a perfect ball to the feet of Simons who lashed the ball past Pickford after only seven minutes. The Oranje Army in the crowd responded with wild celebrations.

The English team however didn’t lie down and came back into the game with chances for both Foden and Saka. In the 18th minute Saka got the ball into the box to Harry Kane who tried to get a shot off but Dumfries slightly caught the Bayern Munich forward on the follow through. Kane rolled round on the ground in apparent agony and the referee gave a goal kick. However a review from VAR told the ref to have another look at it and he changed his earlier decision and instead awarded a penalty to England. Harry Kane recovered from the challenge and lashed the ball into the bottom corner of the net to make it 1-1 with less than a quarter of the match played.

The Dutch suffered until half time with England taking control of the match. Foden and Saka really looked bright and sharp on the ball.

Ronald Koeman got his men together for the second half and they came back out on their toes and in more control of the match. The Dutch swung in a corner kick for Ake to rise above Stones and header the ball of the crossbar into the crowd. The Dutch looked solid and the match seemed to be floating into extra time.

However with seven minutes left on the clock Southgate took off a tired looking Kane and Foden and replaced them with Palmer and Watkins. With just a minute left on the clock of injury time England were awarded a free kick. The ball was moved on to Palmer who had a look to his right and found Watkins in the Dutch box. He spun quickly with the ball and got off a shot that flew into the bottom corner of the net. Both sets of players and fans knew immediately that this was the decisive blow in the match.

England march on to the final in Berlin on Sunday where they will play Spain who defeated France by the same 2-1 score the night before in Munich.