England is through to the EURO 2024 semi-finals after beating Switzerland on penalties on Saturday. The Three Lions will now face the Netherlands, which orchestrated a 2-1 comeback win against Turkey.
England and Netherlands join Spain and France as the last four remaining teams in the race for the European Championship trophy.
The match between England and Switzerland proved to be a tough contest, with both sides playing a cautious game. The deadlock was only broken in the 75th minute thanks to Breel Embolo, who made the most of Dan Ndoye’s cross to give Switzerland the lead.
England responded after five minutes, with Bukayo Saka delivering a beautiful shot from the edge of the box that found its way into the net with the help of the left post.
The game went to extra time, where Switzerland had better chances, and then penalties after neither side managed to prevail. Defender Manuel Akanji missed the first penalty for Switzerland, while all five of England’s penalty-takers converted to keep their national team in the tournament.
“Huge performance, a huge result for us,” said England’s head coach Gareth Southgate. “We had to be tactically spot-on. To come from behind again and show the character and resilience that we did … winning tournaments isn’t just about playing well. I thought we did play well today but you’ve also got to show all those other attributes to win, and we showed them all tonight.”
England’s national team is looking for its first European Championship win and first international trophy since winning the World Cup in 1966. It came close in EURO 2020, reaching the finals before losing to Italy after penalties.
