12 hours ago
England v Netherlands: European Under-21 Championship semi-final
Update:
Date: 2025-06-25T15:31:57.000Z
Title: The teams!
Content: England: Beadle, Livramento, Quansah, Cresswell, Hinshelwood, Hutchinson, McAtee, Anderson, Stansfield, Elliott, Scott.
Subs: Sharman-Lowe, Simkin, Edwards, Egan-Riley, Norton-Cuffy, Hackney, Fellows, Gray, Nwaneri, Rowe, Iling-Junior.
Netherlands: Roefs, Kasanwirjo, Maatsen, van den Berg, Hato, Flamingo, Valente, Milambo, van Bergen, Manhoef, Poku.
Subs: Raatsie, van den Heuvel, Saleh-Eddine, Meijer, Goes, Regeer, Banzuzi, van Brederode, Ohio.
Update:
Date: 2025-06-25T15:30:08.000Z
Title: Preamble
Content: Here we are again, England in the latter stages of a European Championship.
Both teams here have had similar tournaments, starting slow in the group stage, finishing second, but starting to warm up in the knockout round. England defeated pre-tournament favourites Spain in the quarter-finals while Netherlands played for 70 minutes for 10 men but managed to sneak a late goal against Portugal to win 1-0.
England make just one change from the starting XI that beat Spain, Elliot Anderson coming in for Tyler Morton in midfield.
That red for for Ruben van Bommel means the son of the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich midfielder, Mark van Bommel, is suspended for this semi-final, a huge miss for the Dutch. The Netherlands also had a man sent off in their final group game, a 2-0 win over Ukraine, after substitute Youri Regeer was dismissed for a wild tackle nine minutes after coming on. Regeer returns to the bench for this one.
Those familiar with British football will recognise some of the Dutch names: Ian Maatsan is probably the biggest star, and the Aston Villa left back was the player of the match in the last round against Portugal. Neraysho Kasanwirjo played at Rangers this season but struggled to break into the first XI, while Rav van den Berg was a consistent performer for Middlesbrough and Million Manhoef has shone for Stoke City.
Kenneth Taylor is a huge star in central midfield and was voted as Ajax's player of the year last season – he has been linked with moves to Villa, Arsenal and Newcastle in the recent past.
It should be a cracker: 5pm BST kick-off.
