Stuart's Euro 2024 Series 31: England v Netherlands

Match 50 - England 2-1 Netherlands

I'm not a person who puts much store in conspiracy theories. For me an extraordinary claim requires extraordinary proof and, when applied, Occam's Razor normally leads to accepting the least complicated answer IS the correct one.

And then you get a situation where a referee formerly banned for match fixing officiates in a EURO's semi-final and grants a dubious penalty which completely ignored the English handball directly before the shot for which the attempted block recieved the penalty. To be fair, the referee had said no penalty and it was VAR who told him to look at the replay.

They obviously only had him look at the exact moment of the Denzel Dumfries tackle, and not the run up to it. From angles which are hard to find in English media it is apparent that the ball struck Saka's hand.

Am I claiming there was a conspiracy to give England a helping hand in this match?

The call by the VAR team was not for a clear and obvious error. Dumfries tackle did not interfere with Kane's shot and they both had their feet, studs up, in the same area at the same time. The referee was not in any way unsighted and had a clear view of the incident.

When VAR replayed the incident for review they either did play the two seconds before the shot and tackle, or they did not replay the alternative angles.

There was definitely something not right about VAR's imposition into the situation, and the decision to award a penalty.

There have been atrocious decisions in England matches throughout the years - Hello Maradona - but the introduction of VAR was meant to eliminate them, not create them.

There was a game which occurred in the space around the 18th minute penalty.

Netherland's cut England's defence apart on the 7th minute and Simons drove towards the box and from just outside unleashed a shot which a diving Pickford was unable to get near.

Phil Foden took a shot which was almost identical to Lamine Yamal's in the first Semi-Final. Unfortunately Foden's shot pinged of the outside of the post and away. He then had another shot which came from some magical footwork that allowed him to create a gap. Vebruggen just managed to slow the shot down as it went past him, and a fine piece of goal line defence saw the ball halted just before a majority of it could cross the line.

In between those chances Dumfries had a fine strong header ping off the bar with Pickford beaten.

In the second half there was a fine save from Pickford, though van Dijk will be disappointed he couldn't place it better. Saka had a goal disallowed for an offside in run up.

The game seemed to settle into a pace which acknowledged extra-time was coming, and very possibly penalties. Then, in the 89th minute, Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins recieved the ball from Palmer with his back to goal inside the box. He turned andthreaded the thinnest of needles to send the ball past Verbriggen and into the net.

For the second EURO's running England are in the final.

Netherlands may not have gone on to win had the penalty not been awarded but that wont stop them feeling rightly aggrieved.

England will already be thinking about Sunday, and Spain.

Match Number	Teams	1st Half Score	2nd Half Score	Total
50	England v Spain	1-1	1-0	2-1
Total Matchday Goals		2	1	3
Total Tournament Goals		54	61	115

text by stuartcturnbull art by UEFA & altered by stuartcturnbull