Minutes away from extra time and a further half-hour of play for The Netherlands to find their way to the Euro 2024 final, on came Ollie Watkins who had other plans in mind.

🚨🚨| OFFICIAL: Netherlands have been ELIMINATED from #EURO2024 ❌🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/pYQMIY5lEL

— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) July 10, 2024

Netherlands may have had their tournament ended by England, but they put together an impressive run to the semi-finals nonetheless. Let’s look back and review how they made it from the opening game to the final four.

Group Stages

Netherlands were drawn into Group D alongside Austria, France and Poland and performances began rather lacklustre.

Their first match was a 2-1 win against Poland, who eventually finished bottom of the group. However they struggled to repeat the success of the first game, a 0-0 draw against France followed before their final group game ended in a 3-2 defeat to one of the tournament’s biggest surprises; Group D winner Austria.

🚨🇦🇹 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 | Austria BEAT Netherlands 3-2 and finish 1st in Group D! 🥇

Credit to Ralf Rangnick, his side have been a joy to watch so far. 🧠✨ pic.twitter.com/Br5RVt5S66

— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) June 25, 2024

The Dutch managed to qualify as one of the best third placed teams and so that bumps up their rating a bit, but it was a disappointing group stage for a team you would have expected to comfortably finish second at the very least.

Match rating: 6/10

Round-of-16

Netherlands’ knockout run began with a round-of-16 matchup against Group E winners Romania.

This was by far their most convincing performance of the tournament with Cody Gakpo taking control of the match as the Dutch dominated Romania en route to a 3-0 win. Gakpo picked up an assist and a goal in one of the best performances of his career (you can read my review here).

Cody Gakpo against Romania:

29 touches
10 touches in opp. box
4 shots
3 shots on target
3 chances created
3/4 duels won
2/2 take-ons completed
1 goal
1 assist

The joint-top goalscorer at #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/PUsGbYNtDF

— Transfer Sector (@TransferSector) July 2, 2024

Donyell Malen added a brace to Gakpo’s opening goal in what looked like a statement victory for the Dutch, announcing they were a team that had every intention of going all the way.

Match rating: 10/10

Quarter-Final

They went on to play Turkey in the quarter-finals, another surprise story of the tournament having just knocked out Austria in their own round-of-16 fixture.

Unfortunately for Turkey, and to the delight of the Dutch, defender Merih Demiral was suspended for an alleged far-right gesture during his goal celebrations against Austria. Despite this Turkey found themselves an early lead but the Netherlands were able to take control of the game and it was not long before they had the goals they needed to progress.

A 70th minute goal by defender Stefan de Vrij and a second just six minutes later this time in the form of a Mert Muldur own goal was enough to see them through.

Big goal, big performance 💪

👏 Stefan de Vrij @Vivo_GLOBAL | #EUROPOTM pic.twitter.com/LW6ZaTIWDr

— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) July 6, 2024

Whilst not as impressive as the previous 3-0 win, they got just what they needed to progress and looked comfortable doing so and in knockout football you cannot fault them for that.

Match rating: 8/10

Semi-final

Now for what every England fan knows is coming, the Ollie Watkins game.

This was almost a game of two halves for the Netherlands. They came out hot with a brilliant strike from Xavi Simons after just seven minutes to give them an early lead.

A rather controversial penalty decision was then awarded to Harry Kane and the England skipper put his side ahead at the 18th minute mark and for the rest of the half England looked the better side behind a strong showing from Phil Foden who had what would have been his first goal of the tournament cleared off the goal-line.

🗣️ "It's an absolute DISGRACE... It's nowhere near a penalty."

🗣️ "That was RECKLESS from Dumfries."#Euro2024 | #NEDENG | @IanWright0 | @GNev2 pic.twitter.com/MBcwzzIgxi

— ITV Football (@itvfootball) July 10, 2024

Netherlands were much more impressive throughout the second half and at times looked like they might score a winner themselves.

Ollie Watkins however took his chance to be a super sub and found himself in front of goal in a tight angle, yet somehow fired it into the bottom corner to send England to the final and the Netherlands back home.

A moment you are going to see again and again and again.

Ollie Watkins, you absolute HERO! 🦸pic.twitter.com/pkdvUz00LC

— England (@England) July 10, 2024

The Dutch fought to the very end however and they should certainly take pride in making the semi-finals, turning around what was a disappointing start to the tournament.

Match rating: 7/10

Overall tournament rating: 8.5/10