England vs Netherlands LIVE: Updates and team news ahead of Euro 2024 semi-final

Harry Kane has declared he is “getting better and sharper”, saying he has become accustomed to “question marks over my fitness or my form” throughout his career ahead of England’s Euro 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands.

England’s campaign has seen constant discussion over the captain’s physical condition, with another early substitution against Switzerland leading to calls that Ivan Toney comes in for Wednesday’s semi-final in Dortmund.

Kane came into the tournament after picking up a back injury during the final weeks of the season with Bayern Munich, and there have been questions over whether he has been able to press to the level required for England’s gameplan.

Ahead of facing the Netherlands, the striker dismissed such concerns as typical of the noise around the campaign, and insisted he is ready to start while pointing to a wider role in the team.

“It’s something I’ve got used to throughout my career,” Kane said. ”I think there are always going to be times… especially if you look over the last couple of major tournaments, there’s always been at some stage question marks over my fitness or my form.”

With the Euro 2024 semi-final between England and Netherlands just hours away, keep up to date with the latest — from team news, fixture details, analysis and more.

Gareth Southgate says England are ready to make history by reaching a first final on foreign soil, having been inhibited earlier in the Euros by expectations and louder external noise than ever before.

After topping their group in unconvincing fashion, the Euro 2020 runners-up needed a stunning Jude Bellingham strike to save their blushes against Slovakia before beating Switzerland on penalties.

England are now preparing for a third semi-final in four major tournaments, with Ronald Koeman’s Netherlands standing between them and a second successive European Championship final.

Southgate has been criticised for his team’s style despite getting this far and the manager revealed the negative mood around the team impacted the players during the group stage.

A Frenchman finally scored from open play at Euro 2024, Randal Kolo Muani’s early header threatening to spark a dreary dirge of a tournament from Didier Deschamps’ side into life. But it was not to be and, as Richard Jolly explains, that was down to one dramatic shortfall…

The identity of one Euro 2024 finalist is, of course, already known, Spain dancing past France as Lamine Yamal announced his arrival as the crowning talent of what could be a new golden era. Miguel Delaney was in Munich to watch Yamal et al:

“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.

The experienced official, 43, has been refereeing since 2005, but was given a six-month ban from officiating by the German Football Federation in 2006 after accepting a €300 bribe to cover up for fellow official Robert Hoyzer.

Zwayer later brought Hoyzer’s match-fixing plot to light, and after his ban he rebuilt his own reputation and his career, despite Hoyzer being banned for life.

Of all the players around Europe to chastise, to suggest hasn’t had a positive impact on teammates and to berate for not playing well enough, Virgil van Dijk will feel like a baffling choice to regular viewers of the Premier League.

As an individual star and then as captain, the Dutch defender has raised Liverpool to regular trophy winners, been the most accomplished centre-back in the game and won everything going since moving to Anfield, as well as finishing second in the 2019 Ballon d’Or, a mere seven vote points behind Lionel Messi.

Yet as can so often be the case, the domestic perception of a player does not match the international one on home soil. Van Dijk has been pilloried by some of the biggest names in Dutch football history, not just once, not just at this tournament, but relentlessly, for years.

As Berlin and the Henri Delauny trophy come into clearer view, it is almost as if Gareth Southgate’s vision of his side is even more clouded. England’s run to the Euro 2024 semi-final certainly hasn’t been one of those classic cases of a team finding itself as a tournament goes on. So much around Southgate’s side still doesn’t make sense, bar their own iron will, as was all illustrated so chaotically in that quarter-final victory over Switzerland.

What is maybe most significant is that this doesn’t feel as important as it did even a week ago, whatever about three weeks ago. England very much don’t start like they’ll finish, and this doesn’t seem to matter that much. By contrast, the eventual changes seem to result in the winning of ties.

That doesn’t actually mean Southgate has stumbled on what works, though, in another way that can happen in such games.