As the old saying goes “It’s not where you start that matters, it’s where you end up” and every England fan will be thanking our lucky stars that that hold true in football too given how this semi-final started.
England didn’t just start their tournament slowly, they did the same in this game as Declan Rice got his pocket picked deep in his own half by Xavi Simons and as no-one in white put in the effort to close him down he took the chance to unleash a piledriver whistling past Jordan Pickford’s fingertips.
One-Nil to the Netherlands with just 7 minutes on the clock and there must have been some in the stands and pubs across the lands who feared that was the start of a dreadful evening.
Luckily VAR was on hand to gift us a way back into the match 11 minutes later, awarding us a penalty softer than a Merino wool blanket.
Harry Kane was picked out on the penalty spot by Bukayo Saka before flashing his volley agonisingly over the bar, only to be feathered by the block of Denzel Dumfries after the ball had already flown behind.
The contact was minimal at best but still enough for VAR to recommend to the ref that he had another look and as refs do these days he followed the tech’s orders, obediently pointing to the spot.
Kane made no mistake in devouring this gift to smash home into the bottom left corner and draw England level.
It almost got better for England within 5 minutes of their equaliser when the fleet-footed Phil Foden managed to smuggle the ball out of his feet and fire goalward from point blank range onto to see it blocked on the line.
In a first half that was easily England’s best of the Euros, admittedly a low bar, in by far the most entertaining match of their tournament too.
They will be slightly disappointed not to lead at half-time having dominated the flow of the half and hit the woodwork a hatful of times too. Though they were thankful to their own woodwork on occasion throughout the half as the Dutch carried an excellent attacking threat of their own.
Despite the brilliant fare from both teams in the first 45 it seems neither manager was happy at half-time as they both took the opportunity to dip into their respective benches.
Gareth Southgate took the step many had been calling for since the group stages with left-footed, left-back Luke Shaw replaced right-footed Kieran Trippier at the break, whilst Ronald Koeman turned to super-sub Wout Weghorst to provide the Orange with a magic moment or two, with Donyell Marlen the man making way.
Attacking though these changes were the first 15 minutes of the second half were stiflingly sedate as both sides stuttered their way into the half.
Hitting the hour-mark seemed to be a hidden signal for the Dutch to spark back into life as they began to monopolise possession and ratchet up the pressure on Pickford, who proved himself equal to it.
Having weathered the storm it looked for a glorious second that England had completed the comeback 12 minutes from time as a flowing move down the left evaporated the Dutch defence and saw Saka poke home from 6 yards out. Only for this ‘winner’ to be swiftly chalked out for offside against Kyle Walker before he slipped in the assist.
Seemingly Southgate took this as a sign that it was substitution time as Ollie Watkins and Cole Palmer replaced Kane and Phil Foden respectively with time to write themselves into history.
Watkins obliged with a sublime strike worthy of winning any match at minute 90:02, having been fed the ball by Palmer….
Picking up the ball on the right side of the box he swivelled on the spot and stroked his shot across the face of goal and postage stamp perfect into the bottom corner, cueing euphoric celebrations in the stadium that will be echoed in every pub across the land.
How the players stayed focused through injury time only they know, cause we fans hit cloud 9,000 and will ride this high all the way to Sunday!!!
Many doubted Southgate’s methods as we stuttered our way to the Semi’s, but with Watkin’s wonderstrike winning this match his record at major tournaments now stands at 1 quarter-final, 1 semi-final and 2 Finals!!
As I mentioned in my letter to Mr. Southgate, https://the-football-tourist.com/2024/06/22/dear-mr-southgate/, our squad is brilliant and in the moment we are capable of anything, now the players have proved me right.
In Berlin on Sunday, Spain will be the clear favourites but we have a team that has shown it can take on all challengers and come out on top. We have comeback from the dead to win in extra time, we have won on penalties and now we have won with a 91st minute winner from 2 substitutes who had only been on the pitch 10 minutes.
As our match winner said all we need now is to win “one more game, one more game” and we will be champions, after all it not where you start that matters, its where you end up.
For England where we end up is in our first final on foreign soil!!!
The Football tourist 