England came back from an early Xavi Simons scorcher to beat the Netherlands in the final minute with a controversial Harry Kane penalty and Ollie Watkins goal, with Denzel Dumfries in the thick of it.
Gareth Southgate’s men reach their second consecutive European Championship Final, after losing to Italy on penalties, and will face Spain on Sunday.
The Dutch were getting stronger after a terrible start, beating Romania and Turkey after finishing third in their group behind Austria and France. On the other hand, England scraped through in extra time with Slovakia after a last-gasp equaliser and needed penalties to see off Switzerland, but Marc Guehi returned from suspension.
It was an aggressive start from the Netherlands, who took an early lead when Xavi Simons robbed Declan Rice, charged forward and smashed a ferocious shot into the far top corner from the edge of the box.
Harry Kane’s long-range attempt was parried and he then blasted over under pressure from Inter full-back Denzel Dumfries after the Bukayo Saka solo run was blocked. However, VAR controversially called the referee for a penalty, as Dumfries went up with a high boot and caught Kane, also earning a yellow card. Kane stepped up himself and converted to equalise.
Phil Foden thought he had turned the game around with a mazy run and finish from the tightest of angles, but it was cleared off the Netherlands line by Dumfries, making up for the earlier penalty error.
Inter star Dumfries remained in the thick of the action, his header thumping the crossbar on a corner, followed straight away by a fantastic Foden left-foot curler that struck the woodwork at the far top corner.
Memphis Depay went off with a muscular problem and Bart Veerbruggen smothered the Foden snapshot, while Jordan Pickford made a desperate reaction save on Virgil van Dijk.
Saka had the ball in the net on 79 minutes, but only after Kyle Walker had wandered offside for the assist.
As it seemed to be heading towards extra time, substitute Ollie Watkins turned Inter defender Stefan de Vrij and drilled the angled drive across Veerbruggen into the far bottom corner from the tightest of angles.
Netherlands 1-2 England
Simons 8 (N), Kane pen 18 (E), Watkins 90 (E)
Player statistic
| Xavi Simons |  |
7' | ||
| Denzel Dumfries |  |
17' | ||
| 18' |  |
Harry Kane |
| 72' | |
Jude Bellingham | ||
| 86' | |
Bukayo Saka | ||
| Virgil van Dijk | |
87' | ||
| Xavi Simons | |
90+1' | ||
| 90+1' | |
Ollie Watkins (Assist: Cole Palmer) | ||
| 90+4' | |
Kieran Trippier |
Match statistic
death, taxes and the orange bottling it in international tournaments. Only true guarantees in life.
More luck tonight with that penalty but we’ll take it. Think Englands name is on this cup.
Can’t wait for Spain to destroy them
Oh my god , England is gonna get spanked in final . I predict 3-0 to Spanish, easy.
yeah, this euros are over long ago. Italy committed suicide with Spaletti and we are left with this funny final. football is going south.
Oi oi get the cod battered, fryer heated and chips cut. Fish and chips is coming home lol.
Suzy’s apparent hatred toward anything related to Inter… “Dumfries disaster” because of a controversial penalty? You serious? …Was it a fair penalty? Did he play badly? Didn’t he block Foden? Didn’t try to create something, or the 2nd goal was his fault? …Yeah, Inter won the second star before Milan, so feel free to cry more.
Hopefully Spain will put us all out of our misery. Do it for Europe Spain.