Jordan Pickford will become the first England goalkeeper to contest two major tournament finals after Ollie Watkins stepped off the bench to fire Gareth Southgate’s men through to a match-up with Spain in Berlin on Sunday.
The Aston Villa striker was a late introduction against the Netherlands for the tiring Harry Kane and with another gruelling period of extra-time looming, Watkins swivelled onto a pass from fellow sub Cole Palmer to rifle the ball across Bart Verbruggen and inside the far post.
England had cancelled out Xavi Simons’s seventh-minute opener for the Dutch when Kane was awarded a somewhat controversial penalty 11 minutes later and he swept home the spot-kick to make it 1-1.
Despite putting in their best 45 minutes’ worth of football of the tournament so far in the first half, Southgate’s side weren’t able to press home their superiority.
Both sides hit the woodwork, first when Denzel Dumfries headed off the crossbar and Phil Foden hit the outside of the post with a superb, curling effort before the Manchester City forward saw his close-range shot stopped right on the goal line.
Pickford, who had only been able to get his fingertips to Simons’ powerful drive for the Netherlands’ goal, was called upon to parry away Virgil van Dijk’s shot from a free-kick in the second half.
At the other end, meanwhile, Bakayo Saka thought he’d won it for England with 12 minutes left when he turned in Kyle Walker’s cross but the goal was ruled out for offside against the City full-back.
But Watkins came up trumps in the 90th minute with an instinctive striker’s goal and dramatic winner that booked England’s place in the final of a second successive the European Championships and dumped former Toffees boss, Ronald Koeman, and his men out.