Virgil van Dijk in an interaction with the referee during Netherlands vs England Euro 2024 semi-final.© AFP
Dortmund :
Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk felt that the penalty call in the Euro 2024 semi-final that saw England level the game should have gone in their favour. The Netherlands fell on the wrong side of the result after Ollie Watkins scored a late winner to inflict a heartbreak. The Dutch side crashed out of the tournament, and their dreams of lifting a tile once again shattered. Despite England’s win, there was a moment in the game that became the talking point among the fans and former players.
After the Dutch side went ahead within the first ten minutes through Xavi Simmons, England were awarded a penalty, which helped them bring the game back to parity.
Harry Kane and Denzel Dumfries appeared to have collided inside the Netherlands box in the 14th minute. Referee Felix Zwayer initially pointed for a goal kick but reversed his decision to a penalty after VAR reviewed the incident.
Van Dijk was not impressed with that decision and gave his take on the call on beIN Sports and said, as quoted from Goal.com, “I don’t know if I should say something about that. I said it to the Dutch media. I think it says it all that the referee went in quite quickly after the game. I had no time to shake his hand. But it is what it is, the game is done, we lost, certain moments were obvious that they should have gone our way, but they didn’t, whatever the outcome.”
“It is difficult to accept this. It has been a tough year. We had a big dream, and we felt we could have achieved it. They keep changing certain things, small changes that could have a big impact. Maybe it’s a good thing that they could be held accountable as well. They didn’t come here and speak to you and explain themselves like we have to when we do something wrong. That might be something. But I shouldn’t speak about others, and we have to look at ourselves,” he added.
Former England defenders Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher expressed their dissent with the referee’s decision. Neville called it “a disgraceful decision”, while Jamie Carragher wrote on X, “Never a penalty”.
England will now face Spain in Berlin on Sunday in the final of the Euro 2024.
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