Euro 2024: England beat the Netherlands to reach the final

This was not a perfect performance, but it was without question England’s most convincing of the tournament, and yet the second half had meandered to a familiar impasse against the Dutch where decisive action had to be taken.

Southgate’s in-game decision making has been questioned in this tournament, his substitutions often coming off as reactive rather than proactive. But give the man his flowers for the choices he made in the final 10 minutes.

The Netherlands had hit the frame of the goal, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and Kobie Mainoo’s earlier enterprise had slowed right down, and in a script which has mirrored Italia 90 almost word-for-word, we all felt something bad was on its way.

Gareth Southgate roars at the England fans after semi-final victory at Euro 2024 (Image: PA)

Southgate took off Foden – a bold move, considering his earlier influence – and even more surprisingly, Harry Kane.

Consider that for a moment. This was the first game Foden had really sparked as one of two number 10s, and the man following him off the field had just extended his lead at the top of England’s all-time goalscoring list from the penalty spot.

You don’t need to play Jude Bellingham charades to guess how big a move Southgate had just made, and had things gone differently, one can only imagine the reaction.

Ollie Watkins had only played 20 minutes at the Euros. Like Dean Henderson, Lewis Dunk and Adam Wharton, he was due to be one of the tougher answers when folk try and list the 26-man squad in football quizzes years in the future. Now he is one of the first names that spring to mind.

Seconds into injury time, fellow sub Cole Palmer supplied the pass, Watkins an unbelievable finish into the bottom corner. Southgate could not have planned it better with a pen and paper.

And now, for the second Euros running, we are in the final. There is no more debate to be had about Southgate’s acumen, his tactics, his selections, his subs – he has got this team to exactly where it needed to be.

They may need to play better against Spain, who have been a pleasure to watch the whole way through, but if it comes down to the strength of will and mentality then I do not have any concerns over England or their manager.

Win or lose on Sunday, Southgate deserves a beer to be passed in his direction, and not in a plastic cup flung from the stands. He has patched-up, he has compromised, his team hasn’t even been great to watch for the most part, but none of that will matter in the final.

England View – Dan Barnes

Say what you want about Gareth Southgate’s England but the character in his squad is simply undeniable.

Heads might have dropped when Declan Rice lost possession cheaply and Xavi Simons hit a rocket past Jordan Pickford, who didn’t cover himself in glory either.

Ollie Watkins and Marc Guehi celebrate England's win against the Netherlands (Image: PA)

But England had been in this position before against Slovakia and Switzerland, and once again they refused to be beaten.

There was certainly a slice of luck with the equaliser after Denzel Dumfries was judged to have fouled Harry Kane in the box. It was a dreadful decision, in my opinion, but the skipper made no mistake from 12 yards.

The first half performance was light years ahead of the previous rounds and Phil Foden finally showed signs of the immense talent we often see for Manchester City. He is certainly better suited to the style of play adopted in the last couple of matches.

In truth, the second half was dreadful. Ronald Koeman made tweaks to combat England’s dominance in the middle of the park, but his own side didn’t really create a chance of note.

When Bukayo Saka had a goal disallowed for offside, I’m sure I wasn’t the only England fan wondering if more heartbreak was on the cards. After the stress of the quarter-final, I couldn’t handle the thought of another penalty shoot-out.

But up stepped Ollie Watkins with a moment of magic. The pass from Cole Palmer was perfect but Watkins still had so much to do.

He took a clever touch to get onto his right foot but even then, the finish had to be absolutely perfect to sneak through the legs of the defender and find a way past Bart Verbruggen from a tight angle.

The feeling when the ball hit the back of the net is something I will remember for a long time.

Southgate has come in for plenty of criticism over his substitutions (or lack of) but they certainly paid off this time.

Back-to-back Euro finals is a huge achievement and there will be plenty of celebrating going on across the nation.

I don’t want to damper the mood but it is going to take a huge effort against Spain in the final if England are to have any chance of lifting the trophy and ending 58 years of hurt.

The Spanish have been the most impressive team by some distance over the past few weeks, racking up victories against the likes of Italy, Germany and Spain.

England will go into the final as underdogs, but anyone who has watched the tournament will know you simply can’t write off this team.

Football, it’s time to come home. You’ve been gone for far too long.

TV View – Marc Iles

Roy Keane is the lemon juice in the salad dressing, the mint sauce on the lamb chop, and just occasionally he can be rather prophetic.

Before the semi-final Mark Poutgatch had stoked up a lively debate between the ITV pundits on the weight of England expectation, and why players have so often found it difficult to play for their country.

Gary Neville and Ian Wright could talk about that first hand – although, thinking back, Wrighty’s international call-ups usually presented him with a nice sit down, rather than any great stress.

Neville listed off players who had suffered “annihilation” at the hands of the press, including his own brother Phil after Euro 2000. But the scowl on Keane’s face during talk of Golden Generations and 58 years of hurt showed he wasn’t buying it.

“Focus on winning a game of football. History will take care of itself.”

And didn’t England do just that? For the first time in the tournament they played with a degree of freedom and didn’t appear concerned with what the following day’s headlines would bring.

Gareth Southgate seemed a man unlocked when Ollie Watkins fired his winning goal late on – but not to the same degree as his coach Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink, who for a moment seemed to forget he was Dutch as he leapt from the dugout to celebrate.

The pundits’ debate was a fascinating one and deserved more time to go though detail. Even Laura Woods and Karen Carney looked a bit disappointed to break the flow when the director cut to them at pitch-side for some tactical chat.

ITV have all the usual commercial limitations but this is the first tournament in recent memory that I can say their coverage has been better than the BBC. Guy Mowbray still outranks Sam Matterface, I’m afraid, but the commentator came up with a lovely sign-off.

“You can’t start a fire without a spark,” he said, referring to the Bruce Springsteen song that has been embraced by England fans at the tournament.

We’ve waited a while… But I think this was it.