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As the magnitude of fixture becomes greater, England’s preparation actually becomes less intense. The squad have done most of the actual work already. A bit like with their successful approach to penalties, there can be a danger of over-preparation. Gareth Southgate is instead intent on doing most of the preparation in meetings, ensuring the team are conscious of the different challenges posed by a competent Netherlands side.
This is the benefit that comes with experience, and Southgate now has more semi-final experience than any other England manager in history. As he prepares for his third in a major tournament, it is one reason this occasion feels less momentous, albeit no less invigorating. The team just have bigger ambitions now.
“The great thing is we’re not sitting here happy with a semi-final,” Southgate said. “We want to go further…”
That is one fact amid all of these different emotions that shouldn’t be forgotten. England are still just a match from one of the greatest stages in the game, as well as a chance to rectify Euro 2020.
This is what the country long desired. Southgate even made a point of reminding people of that on the eve of the game, as he compared the Dutch tournament record to England’s. While this is the national team’s seventh semi-final, it is the Netherlands’ 10th.
“Our semi-final tally looks a bit healthy now, looks a bit more like what we’d hope an England history would look like," Southgate said. “But there are a lot of nations who have won the European Championship and we haven’t, and we want to try and correct that balance.”
Southgate stressed that his England have constantly managed to “break new ground”: winning big games away, winning shootouts, and of course getting this far regularly. “We’ve never been to a final outside our own shores. These are opportunities to make a difference and that’s how we have to look at it. We don’t want to be burdened by what’s happened before.”
If we’re looking to the past, the last meeting between these two teams in a major championship weighs over this, and not just for how past results inform the psychology of a game. There were also the specifics of what happened, and how they relate to now. That match was in June 1996, when England had managed to come through a highly-anticipated European Championship with some moments of individual inspiration, but also so much inertia. They then stepped out against Netherlands, and put in one of the great tournament displays.
The late Terry Venables described that famous 4-1 win as “perfection” and his “most thrilling experience in football”, which was all the more satisfying for how it represented “the culmination of two-and-a-half years of preparation”.
Southgate’s work goes back much further, to seven years. This tournament had been seen as potentially his moment of delivery, when it could all come together. It could still be, but it’s difficult not to feel that depends on the performance level finally rising – to a convincing display, a spectacle.
The identity of the opposition and the resonance of the fixture only adds to that, especially with how the “grind” of England’s progress through Euro 2024 – to use Southgate’s own word – has strengthened resolve. There is hope that it can gradually bring the team to the point where the actual collective finally reflects the players’ great ability.
England’s games have instead been absorbing for entirely different reasons. They have been psychodramas rather than spectacles, as if the players had to confront internal and external challenges more than they had to deal with the opposition.
Maybe, as in 1996, the will to come through so much might suddenly bring the explosion everyone wants. Or, it might just see more of the same.
Issues remain. The elimination of Switzerland only emphasised some of them, not least the lack of fluency. It was why Southgate felt the need to actually talk about it with the players. It almost represented a form of team therapy.
“When you can sense that feeling, you need to confront it. It’s no use avoiding it and hoping it will go away. In the end, we sort of had to grind it out on the pitch.”
That’s where they are now, carrying what Harry Kane describes as an “aura” if not yet momentum in terms of performance. It might still be presumptuous to talk of putting in a performance rather than just putting themselves in the final. This isn’t as good a Dutch side as some of the predecessors that Southgate spoke about, but they have their own resilience.
They also have a team that works, so far amplifying the team’s abilities. There is no better illustration of this than top scorer Cody Gakpo, and it is all underpinned by a defender as good as Virgil van Dijk. Manager Ronald Koeman may not have his usual midfield, most notably missing the injured Frenkie de Jong, but Euro 2024 has shown they have precisely the central players that can give England difficulties in terms of possession.
That might be all the more important since it is expected to be humid in Dortmund. It’s partly why the England workload has been lighter, as Southgate is just trying to keep freshness. All 26 players are available. Luke Shaw is now almost certain to come in on the left, although the main interest there will be how much England shift between a back three and a four. It was fluid against Switzerland, even if that partly meant the performance was not.
The actual line-up is expected to remain the same beyond the inclusion of Shaw, and the return of the previously suspended Marc Guehi for Ezri Konsa. For all the talk that Ivan Toney may come in, Kane says he feels like he is “getting better and sharper”.
As has become apparent through England’s campaign, however, how they start may not be important if they finish in the right way. Substitutes have become so important. They may now become essential, especially with the way England have been through two extra-time periods and the Dutch none.
“There’s so much science involved in recovering players,” Southgate said, “but things will happen over the next five to six days for all of the teams involved, where people might start games and get an early injury because you’re not able to train as fully as you might.”
The manager does believe England are showing a “truer reflection” of themselves, as Kane insists they can still “reach their full potential”. That may end up crucial but, right now, all that matters is reaching the final.
