Match Day LIVE
UEFA EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
Netherlands vs England: A bitter Rivalry Match | Euro 2024 semi-final.
Date -July 10, 2024
Venue – Signal Iduna Park , Dortmund , Germany .

.A bitter rivalry , match indeed I must say , it’s not going to be easy for both sides in this semi finals match ,of the Euro 2024 tournament, who have looked horns many times before ,Wednesday semi finals match .
England and the Netherlands are among the oldest football-playing nations in the world, with a rich heritage, legacy, and passion for this beautiful sport. Oranje was established in 1889, while England is possibly the oldest national team in the world, founded more than 150 years ago in 1863.

England and the Netherlands locked horns for the first time in 1935, 23 years before the inception of the Euros. The first match went England’s way with the English side winning 1-0. England were dominant in their initial years, and it took the Oranje , 42 years to taste their first victory against the Three Lions in 1977 .

Their football rivalry dates back for some nine decades in their footballing history , before the advent of the European Champiinahip .A fun fact in this feature ,is that eight Dutch players in the Netherlands squad currently play for English sides in the Premier League, with one of them wearing the captain’s armband for English giants, Liverpool, as well as his country, Vigil Van Dyke ..

Down memory lane we also remember with nostalgia the popular and well known *Dutch terrible trio of Marko Van Basten , Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard , who took the football world by storm with their soccer prowess , pukka play as well as extra teersiterial skills .
The year 1988 was the year they really show cases their football supremacy when they pummeled a star studded Three Lions side in the Euro Champiinship that year with Van Basten hatrrick and England were eliminated
The three lions team made up of Alan Shearer , Glen Hoodle etc , the Dutch not only show them the exit door but went ahead to win the Cup , securing their first major trophy after a century of existence .

Dutch influence in the English Premishio league in the early 90 s is a plus for the Oranje lads when rhe likes of
Segers and Michel Vonk lined up for Wimbledon and Manchester City respectively on the opening weekend of the inaugural Premier League season.later players like Robbie Van Peesie of Arsenal and Manchester United who scored a total of 144 goals , making him the highest goal scorer from the Netherlands in the EPL .
So far, a total of 133 Dutch players have featured in the Premier League, with eight of them in the current Dutch Euro 2024 squad..

Revenge came for the three lions when they humbled the Dutch with an emphatic 2-0 victory , with two goals from Teddy Sherigham and Alan Shearer .
Their most recent encounter in June 2019 in a European Nations League match , the three lions took a slight 1-0 lead through Marcus Rashford , whose efforts were reduced to nothing when Matthijs de Ligt nullified the lead, the game went to extra time and the Dutch came out victorious again by 3-1 .

Though untill recently , the Dutch Eredivisie have seen the influx of English players to their domestic league , the likes of goal keeper,
Jordan Henderson from Ajax, Adrian Blake from Utrecht, and Derry Murkin from Volendam.

England having qualified three times in a major tournament in four attempts looks good to carry the day,
England have become a regular fixture at the sharp end of both Euros and World Cups without claiming the prize, so only silverware will do for Gareth Southgate’s squad this summer.
The Three Lions reached a fourth European Championship semi-final overall by seeing off Switzerland in last week’s quarter-finals, despite trailing to a late Breel Embolo goal heading towards the final whistle in Dusseldorf..

Following victory over Poland, a draw with France, and an eventful defeat to Austria, the Oranje were handed a relatively kind last-16 tie against Romania, in which they ultimately ran out 3-0 winners.
However, a squad led by captain Virgil van Dijk will attempt to win just a second European Championship semi-final tie for the Netherlands; and with a dismal record of four losses from the previous five, the burden of history weighs heavily on their shoulders.

Injury concerns Amy not be a serious problem for bothe the Dutch and the three Lions this evening at the Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund , with arrival and recently tested defender Luke Shaw , as well as Kane who has confirmed that his taking off against Switzerland was just a cramp , other players in the English squad are in high sprit for the tak ahead .
The Dutch also has similar positivity in their squad with little injury list .

Predictions :

The Dutch side whose attackers have started to click after coming from behind to beat Turkey 2-1 in the quarter finals is enough signal and hand writing on the wall for the three Lions to prepare for a harvest of goals from the Oranje lads ..
For Enlgland , I may not know their faith today but if they can change their style of play with their star studded team and players like Saka , Bellingham etc, they will have a beth in the finals .With their history of heavy defeats from the Nethernands , running for decades , the Lions will be looking for a massive revenge to end the jinx of series of defeat , only to second to Brazil in rating against the three Lions .We Amy also see a draw tonight as well as an extra time and the attendant sudden death penalties.

Predictions – Netherlands 2-2 England and an extra time and possibly penalty shootout

Happy Viewing , Happy Midweek
Uchefreetips (2024. C).
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