Euro 2024: England faces Netherlands in bid for consecutive European finals

England can reach backtoback European Championship finals when it meets the Netherlands in Dortmund in the second Euro 2024 semifinal The winner plays Spain or France in Sundays finalKickoff is at 9 pm local time 1900 GMT 1230 am Thursday Heres what to know about the matchMatch factsBoth teams conceded the opening goal in their quarterfinals before coming back to win with England beating Switzerland in a penalty shootout after a 11 draw and the Netherlands winning 21 against TurkeyAfter a win on penalties in his 100th game in charge of England manager Gareth Southgate defended his oftencautious tactics as the kind of streetwise style successful teams use The backlash from England fans including some who threw plastic cups at him after a groupstage game is quite difficult to deal with he addedThe Netherlands will be by far the highestranked team England has faced after group games with Serbia Denmark and Slovenia followed by knockout games with Slovakia and SwitzerlandThe referee for the game is Felix Zwayer who once had ties to a matchfixing scandal in Germany England midfielder Jude Bellingham was fined 40000 euros USD 43400 in 2021 while playing for Borussia Dortmund for criticizing ZwayerTeam newsEngland has relied on the rightfooted Kieran Trippier at left wingback but his tendency to cut inside has meant England has made little use of the leftwing all tournament Leftfooted Luke Shaw came off the bench against Switzerland for his first minutes since February after injury Shaw says hes fit to start against the Netherlands if Southgate picks himSouthgate has to choose whether to stick with Ezri Konsa in the centre of defence after he replaced the thensuspended Marc Gueacutehi against Switzerland Gueacutehi is eligible againTheres scrutiny of Harry Kanes fitness after the England captain went off with a cramp in extra time against Switzerland Ivan Toney came off the bench and scored one of Englands five successful penalties in the shootoutNetherlands coach Ronald Koeman could keep his lineup unchanged for the third game in a row with Memphis Depay starting alongside Cody Gakpo and Steven Bergwijn up frontBy the numbersEngland has played a full hour more than the Netherlands in the last 10 days after beating Slovakia in extra time and then Switzerland on penalties The Dutch wrapped up their wins over Romania and Turkey without needing extra timeThe Netherlands scored the opening goal in only one of its five games so far at Euro 2024 against Romania in the prequarterfinals England last scored the opening goal against Denmark in the group stageAlso ReadEuro 2024 Battle for glory Four European powerhouses vie for final berthThe Netherlands hasnt reached a European Championship final since it won the tournament in 1988 and was last a semifinalist in 2004Englands first shot on target against Switzerland was Bukayo Sakas goal to level the score in the 80th minute A round earlier Bellinghams spectacular overhead kick was Englands first shot on target That came in the fifth minute of secondhalf added timeDutch forward Gakpo is the topscoring player left at Euro 2024 with three goals What was initially thought to be a fourth against Turkey was instead ruled to be an own goal Kane and Bellingham are Englands top scorers with twoWhat theyre sayingI dont really understand the criticism What hes done for the country for us as players as well he really took us to the next level Ive got a lot to thank him for because he showed a lot of faith and trust in picking me when he didnt have to England defender Luke Shaw on manager Gareth SouthgateHopefully its us that will have the ball more than England So its more England thats running I expect a highintensity game Netherlands defender Micky van de VenWith agency inputs