Should England be wary of ‘big game’ Cody Gakpo,The Netherlands vs England sounds like a great semifinal from…

Steen: On paper, The Netherlands vs England sounds like a great semifinal from teams that were expected to perform well at Euro 2024, in practice, it’s been a series of frustrations for both teams, but they just keep winning in the knockout stages. The Netherlands was up against it against Turkiye, trailing at halftime, but the Turks broke down in the second half, the Dutch struck twice in short order as Stefan De Vrij, who was great in the back, came forward to head in a goal that tied it with two minutes to play, then Turkey conceded an own goal that Cody Gakpo from Liverpool pressed on wide a few minutes later. Bart Verbruggen performed some miracle work in goal to keep Turkiye out of the back of the net, and with one of his best games of the tournament, Memphis Depay led the Netherlands in to the semifinal where Ronald Koeman’s men will clash with Gareth Southgate’s England.

After a scoreless first half against Switzerland in the quarterfinals continued England’s drudgery (but solid defending), Bukaya Sako from Arsenal was the hero, England scored in the 80th minute, and won 5-3 on penalties as Jordan Pickford from Everton was able to make more saves for his country, and Sako, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ivan Toney and the first 5 penalty takers for England were perfect, something you can rarely say about England in penalties.

This England side has regained some confidence mentality wise and still believe they can win Euro 2024 despite an attack that has a lot of malaise. They defend well, Harry Kane has been unfit and now may not feature in this semifinal, but bringing in Ivan Toney (or Ollie Watkins) would probably be an improvement based on the sample size of this tournament.

The key for England will be the midfield, they can win on penalties, but surely they want to score and then try to lock down the Dutch, the Dutch have a suspect patchwork midfield, Turkiye and Romania couldn’t exploit it, but England has a bit more talent and surely can with Declan Rice and Kobie Mainoo. As a keen follower of both teams, both teams have weaknesses to exploit and don’t inspire confidence, the Netherlands have hit their stride at the right time but are suspect for patches of play, while England’s attack is always suspect under Southgate.

The Dutch have some capable tournament players, Ronald Koeman is a skilled manager, and both goalkeepers are excellent, I don’t expect a high scoring or free flowing “open” clash, rather this will go into extra time and possibly penalties, where England has a slim advantage. Prediction: England 2 Netherlands 1 (England win after penalties)