When finally it came in front of the great terrace of Oranje fans, on 89mins 59secs exactly, the game ebbing, it felt like a revelation – a bolt from nowhere from substitute Ollie Watkins who was facing away from goal one moment, and thundering in the winner the very next.
England are in the final of Euro 2024. The great despondency that hung over Gareth Southgate’s team’s progress in Germany seems to linger nonetheless, now uncertain of its purpose. This was a moment that stands comparison with the handful of miracles over 152 years of the national team that feel so relentlessly pored over as to be positively threadbare. Suddenly space is cleared for a new picture on the mantelpiece: Watkins’ feint, turn, hit – and history made.
The Watkins goal, with legs tiring all over the pitch, extra time in the air, came as England seemed to have allowed their best performance in the tournament to pass them by. They had dominated the first half and come from behind. This was Phil Foden’s best night for England, and the same might be said of Kobbie Mainoo. Bukayo Saka was once again arguably the tournament’s standout.
Now a first England tournament final outside of Wembley. A game against Spain, undoubtedly the popular favourites here in Germany, and the team with the best record in the tournament albeit not quite the 2010 edition. A little short of the great passing machine that, between 2008 and 2012, won three major tournaments by simply refusing to allow their opposition a meaningful role in the game. Asked whether his side were better against possession-hungry teams like Spain, Southgate joked: “We will have to get the ball off them first.”
This was Southgate in his usual humble and reflective mood. Later he would describe himself as “a kindred spirit” of the men and women in the England seats in the Westfalenstadion. “If I hadn’t been on the grass [as manager] I would have been celebrating like them,” he observed simply. A decent man has done it his way and the final has been reached with a fine performance at last. The right substitutions, at the right time and a winner no-one will ever forget.
The first half was peak Southgateism – a refined version of Gazball, a slick wet surface and a young England team with 60 per cent of the possession on the night, nudging it around a football nation as august as the Dutch. They had fallen behind to Xavi Simons’ early goal, pouncing on a stumble from Declan Rice, and yet that itself had felt out of keeping with the flavour of the evening. England were on top of it. This was the good stuff.
Foden’s touch was a thing of wonder. When he is in the groove, he holds the ball under a spell. Jude Bellingham seemed to follow him too and Saka was so dangerous that in the end the Dutch simply committed two to marshal him – often Cody Gakpo as well as Nathan Aké. That opened more space for Foden inside.
Southgate would say later that there was more going on than might have been obvious. Consistent team shape changing from Ronald Koeman who adapted the way in which his team built with the ball – which prompted a response from England and then another from the Dutch. With 10 minutes of the first half played Koeman made the first big move. Memphis Depay was hooked and an extra midfielder sent on. That was Joey Veerman, who immediately trotted over to Foden.
England had equalised with a Harry Kane penalty that Koeman disputed with some justification. The German referee Felix Zwayer was called over by his VAR for a second look after Denzel Dumfries connected with Kane just after the England captain had got his shot off in the box. Dumfries was booked too and the leniency he was shown later when dragging back Foden suggested that Zwayer was beginning to have regrets about the penalty decision.
Yet England were beguiling. When the orange shirts surrounded Saka, so Foden was free. He could open up his body onto that pass from the right and strike with his left as he did on 32 minutes, clipping the post.
He went around Bart Verbruggen later in the half and Dumfries got it off the line. This was compelling stuff. A territory grab, a range of passing options. Even Kieran Trippier materialising at times on the left, that great unoccupied England flank. Sometimes even overlapping past Bellingham’s elbow.
Trippier will be a doubt for the final, with a groin problem that he was playing in spite of. Southgate was already voicing concerns about the one fewer day that his squad have to prepare for Sunday in Berlin at the Olympic Stadium. There will be no training of the conventional kind in the next three days, he said, just recovery and gentle patterns of play. Southgate hinted that Kane had never quite recovered from the collision with Dumfries for the penalty. Luke Shaw replaced Trippier at half-time and the big question now is whether he starts on Sunday.
The substitutions. It was a long wait, by which time, on 80 minutes, England felt on the back foot. A fine challenge from Kyle Walker on Gakpo, a Saka goal fractionally offside.
Then Cole Palmer and Watkins arrived with much disquiet back home that it was Foden and not Bellingham substituted. Watkins would say later that he had told Palmer the latter would provide the assist and Watkins would score. “I manifested it,” he said, without a flicker of self-doubt.
The man who brought Arsenal’s title hopes crashing down at the Emirates in April. A good player – a Premier League goalscorer but how about the really big moments? In Watkins’ first few minutes, with his back to goal, Stefan De Vrij came through him. “That’s not really my game,” Watkins said later, “but running in behind – that’s my bread and butter.”
Palmer played him in down the right. De Vrij was behind Watkins – and he thought he had him and then, this fine Dutch defender was out the equation. A blink of the eye, a fraction of a second, a goal unrolling years and years of underachievement in a single beautiful moment. Berlin on Sunday, for England’s second European Championship final in three years and finally with a performance to give them the confidence this might be their day.