Four touches by Watkins sets up England final spot

It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. And that was some way to send England to the Euro 2024 final in Berlin on Sunday.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

England 2

Kane (18 pen), Watkins (90)

Netherlands 1

Simons (7)

In a tournament where every Gareth Southgate decision has been questioned and criticised, it is one of his decisive substitutions that has returned England back to European football’s greatest stage, and a chance of redemption for Euro 2020. Many might say it was the obvious move to take off Harry Kane but it still wasn’t as clear as Ollie Watkins’s sublime strike. Four touches were enough, maybe yet to rectify 58 years.

This is something that shouldn’t be overlooked in all of the undercurrents that will swirl around a gruelling 2-1 victory over the Netherlands.

England are back in a major final, their second in three years, and just the third in history. It is the sort of record this football culture has long desired but now there is the demand for more.

The problem is the very fixture will demand more, as Southgate’s side take on the best team in the tournament in Spain. Those are discussions for the next few days, though. For now, it is only the moment to revel in something marvellous. Watkins’s flying finish was certainly fitting of the moment.

In reaching the final, too, there was at least the sense of a team arriving – if only briefly. England’s spell between Xavi Simons’s brilliant opening goal and half-time was by a significant distance their best period of football in this tournament. They looked like what the vision of this team should be.