Surely, England must be the luckiest team left in the competition. After some atrocious performances, they are now in a position where they could actually win the tournament!
It is a little bit galling listening to Gareth Southgate telling reporters that everything is going to plan when even the most ardent England fan will admit that he is a very lucky man.
It is what it is, though and as proud Englishmen, we are obviously over the moon that we have got Wednesday night’s match to look forward to.
As for the Netherlands, we were impressed by their performance against Turkey, after going a goal behind, they showed character and determination to win the game and build on the impressive Quarter-final win over Romania.
Odds and Predictions
The bookies have priced England up as the favourites for this match at 2.50, the Netherlands are 3.20, and the odds for the draw are 2.90.
We’ve seen a few pundits talking about a draw for this match but we think now that Southgate has tinkered with the starting lineup, this will be a win for England.
For the first of our tips, 2.50 is a fair price for the England win and we think the scoreline will be an emphatic 3 – 1 at odds of 26.0.
We England fans are so fickle. It was only a week ago we thought that the end of the world was nigh, and now we are talking about beating the Netherlands in the Semi-final!
For the last one of our predictions, we are going to tip Bukayo Saka in the ‘To score at any time’ market.
He impressed against the Swiss and now he has the taste for it, we are expecting more goals from him.
Comparison and Statistics from Past Meetings between the Teams
England and the Netherlands have faced each other 22 times in their history.
In the head-to-head record between the two teams, England have won six times, the Netherlands have won seven times, and nine matches have ended in a draw.
The last five H2H matches between the two teams are listed below.
| Past Meetings | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06 Jun 2019 | netherlands | 3-1 | england | UEFA Nations League |
| 23 Mar 2018 | netherlands | 0-1 | england | Friendly Game |
| 29 Mar 2016 | england | 1-2 | netherlands | Friendly Game |
| 29 Feb 2012 | england | 2-3 | netherlands | Friendly Game |
| 12 Sep 2009 | netherlands | 2-2 | england | Friendly Game |
Expected Line Ups
We thought Virgil van Dijk was back to his best in the game against Turkey and wasn’t Cody Gakpo impressive yet again?
He is the joint leading scorer in the competition, so he has an excellent chance of lifting the Golden Boot.
As for England, let’s hope Luke Shaw and Cole Palmer play from the start as the game did change after they came on against Switzerland.
Netherlands (4-3-3): Bart Verbruggen; Denzel Dumfries, Stefan de Vrij, Virgil van Dijk, Nathan Aké; Marten de Roon, Xavi Simons, Tijjani Reijnders; Donyell Malen, Memphis Depay, Cody Gakpo.
England (3-4-2-1): Jordan Pickford; Kyle Walker, John Stones, Marc Guéhi; Bukayo Saka, Kobbie Mainoo, Declan Rice, Luke Shaw; Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden; Harry Kane.
How Far Will These Teams Progress in the Tournament?
We believe England now stands a great chance of lifting the trophy.
The Netherlands certainly won’t be a pushover and the winners of the Spain vs France Semi-final will believe that they can go all the way, but for us, something has changed in the England camp, which has given the players the confidence that they can actually do it but then again, how many times have you heard that before?
