England vs Netherlands

England are already in the contention of retaining the trophy that they have won in 2023 in an all-or-none tournament that saw them win 1-0 against Spain in the final game.

Two years later, the Three Lions failed to have an easy way through the group phase even after their opening 3-1 win over the Czech Republic.

They then drew 0-0 with Slovenia after which they lost by 2-1 on their last group match against Germany but the loss was not costly as Czech Republic defeated the other team in the group.

Lee Carsley applied his performance levels to his quarter-final match against Spain where James McAtee and Harvey Elliott scored in the first quarter an hour of the game to give their country the best start but Javi Guerra scored a spot-kick.

England maintained their breath by fighting the Three Lions to keep the La Rojita side at bay as Elliot Anderson put the lions at ease and confirmed the results in the added minutes using a penalty to the delight of the English with an imminent probability of regaining successes achieved during 1982 and 1984 due to their back-to-back tournaments.

England will also be looking to get a boost of confidence with the senior side who enjoyed a win over the Netherlands in the semi-final of the European Championship last year with a dramatic goal in the 90 th minute which was saved until the last minute and this is one thing that Carsley would not be hoping would happen with his side in this one.

Netherlands are targeting to take the Under-21 Euro title after winning the trophy in the 2006 and 2007 events.

After escaping the group stage and quarter-final stage, the Jong Oranje is now planning to reach a second semi-final in the tournament as they have achieved before in three tournaments.

Having picked up only one point in their first two matches in the group, Netherlands needed a 2-0 win over Ukraine in their last group game to be assured of runners-up place in Group D.

Ruben van Bommel was dismissed in the 21 st minute of the quarter-final match with Portugal, a disappointment to the hopes of the Netherlands to reach to semi-finals and yet the Dutch was reprieved when Geovany Quenda rattled the post from the penalty area as time wound down the clock in the first half.

Ernest Poku replaced the bench with the winning goal in the 84th minute and marked the five wins in the last seven games of The Netherlands.

Netherlands are yet to advance past the second of their two semi finals so now they are in the process of getting their first victory in this part of the tournament since the 2007 encounter with England in penalties.