Fee for 21-year-old will be record for Swedish playerArsenal sign Netherlands No 1 Van Domselaar Manchester United are poised to sign Anna Sandberg from BK Hacken for what will be a record transfer fee for a Swedish player. The 21-year-old full-back is understood to have completed a medical at United on Tuesday and is close to becoming the English club’s fourth signing of the summer, following the arrivals of Dominique Janssen, Elisabeth Terland and Melvine Malard. Continue reading...

Whether you followed your team in Germany or watched at home, we’d like to hear your views and experiences Euro 2024 has been a strange tournament in many ways. It started with a bang, fell to a hush midway through, and has built its way back to a crescendo, with Spain and England preparing to contest a heavyweight final. We might even have a new champion come Sunday night. The hosts kicked things off in Munich by beating Scotland 5-1 (still the highest-scoring game), but other pre-tournament favourites struggled to get going. France, blessed with the most talented squad and regular finalists in recent years, were not nearly as exciting as Georgia, the lowest-ranked team of the 24. England, the other great contenders before a ball was kicked, have been dreadfully dreary at times and yet have also given us some of the tournament’s most memorable moments: Jude Bellingham’s overhead kick, Jordan Pickford’s bottle-assisted penalty save and Ollie Watkins’ late winner against the Netherlands. Continue reading...

Tickets may cost £2,500, most flights are sold out or charging five times normal price – and fans already in Germany face tricky decisionsEuro 2024 – latest updates Over much-needed breakfasts involving a significant amount of sausage and pancakes, there was some serious soul-searching going on outside the Maximilian cafe on the Alten Markt of the west German city of Dortmund. England’s defeat of the Netherlands, securing a place in the country’s first major final away from Wembley, along with a performance that for once lived up to expectations, was a source of great joy, croaky throats – and has raised questions for fans already in Germany over watching the final. Continue reading...

England’s Ollie Watkins described his disbelief after a 'special moment' that he had not dared to imagine earlier in his career. Watkins propelled England’s men to their first major tournament final on foreign soil with a brilliant ­last‑minute goal against the Netherlands. The Aston Villa forward explained such scenes were a distant prospect when he was coming through as a youngster. 'I never thought I’d be playing in the Euros for England,' he said. 'Obviously you can dream but I’m a realist. I was just focusing on getting back into the first team at Exeter. I’ve worked hard to get to this point and I’m going to enjoy every moment.' ‘I had to be greedy’: Watkins revels in journey from Exeter to England heroics Continue reading...

Netherlands head coach feels spot-kick award was wrongHe says ‘we cannot play properly football’ if that is a foul Ronald Koeman criticised the penalty award that brought England an equaliser in the Netherlands’ Euro 2024 semi-final defeat, saying that proper football is finished if that is regarded as a foul. Harry Kane scored from the spot after the video assistant referee recommended to Felix Zwayer that he use the pitch-side monitor to reassess Denzel Dumfries’s attempt to block a shot by the England captain. Dumfries right boot crashed into Kane’s just after the striker had connected with a shot that went over the bar. Continue reading...

Bellingham fined in 2021 for unproven match-fixing claimZwayer was banned for his part in 2005 scandal Uefa has given its full backing to Felix Zwayer, who will officiate England’s Euro 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands as planned despite Jude Bellingham making an unproven allegation of match fixing against the referee, which he denies, three years ago. The governing body has no concerns about Zwayer’s suitability to oversee the game despite Bellingham describing him as “a referee that has match-fixed before” in a high-profile run-in during 2021. Bellingham was referring to a case that led to the German official being banned for six months in 2006, after a match between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich in December 2021. The Guardian understands Uefa has complete confidence in Zwayer, who has been Fifa listed since 2012. Continue reading...

Striker might not be Cruyffian idea of the Total Football frontman but he found way to break down Turkey defence Orthodoxy, in the end, prevailed. International football, perhaps, always has a slightly retro feel, with its teams of mismatched parts, the basic pressing structures, the preponderance of games decided not by tactical plans or even ability, but by human desire and passion and doing the right thing at just the right time. It is, perhaps, a more heroic form of the game, a world in which there is still a place for champions to rise above the analysis of the technocrats. And there is little more retro than the tactic, in extremis, of throwing on a big man. For Ronald Koeman, as for Louis van Gaal before him, when there is an emergency for the Netherlands, call for Wout Weghorst. The Burnley striker might not be the Cruyffian idea of the Total Footballing front man, but this is not the first time he has turned a game for his country after coming off the bench. Weghorst didn’t score, but he gave the Netherlands a focal point to their attack around which Cody Gakpo, Memphis Depay and Xavi Simons could operate, and he gave them a way that Austria couldn’t find in the last 16 to break down this Turkish defence. He actually won only one header, touched the ball just 13 times, but presence is not easily measured by statistics. Continue reading...

BBC Sport looks back at England's win over Netherlands at Euro 96.

England winger steps up in shootout against Switzerland‘I’m a guy that is going to put myself in that position’ On an extraordinary night in Düsseldorf, Bukayo Saka exorcised his Euro 2020 demons with a penalty strike in a phenomenal shootout for England and immediately insisted his sights were set on making history for the nation by winning Euro 2024. Saka had already delivered a player-of-the-match performance, having scored a wonderful 80th-minute goal to rescue England and take their quarter-final here into extra time, before his redemption moment from the penalty spot, which helped put England through to the Euro 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands in Dortmund on Wednesday night. Continue reading...

The Netherlands stand between England and a place in next Sunday’s final after a pulsating, dramatic comeback win that was sealed by a superb late save from Bart Verbruggen. His stop from Semih Kilicsoy meant a goal that Cody Gakpo will hope to claim, which followed an equaliser by Stefan de Vrij, proved to be the winner on a night of sizzling noise and tension. Samet Akaydin had given Turkey a first-half lead and for a long period it seemed that might see them to victory in front of their watching president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was watching amid the controversy that followed Merih Demiral’s high-profile suspension. Continue reading...

Watch as Stefan de Vrij equalises for the Netherlands against Turkey during their quarter-final in Berlin.

Euro 2024 quarter-final, 8pm BST kick-off in BerlinPlayer guide | Golden Boot | And you can mail Scott The historical head-to-head between these two countries doesn’t tell us much. The Netherlands have six wins to Turkey’s four, so it’s been pretty balanced over the long haul. The teams recently met during qualification for the 2022 World Cup, but that hardly splits them either: Burak Yılmaz was the hat-trick hero as Turkey won 4-2 in Istanbul, while Memphis Depay scored three as the Netherlands ran out 6-1 winners in Amsterdam. So good luck predicting which way tonight’s match will go with supreme confidence. The Netherlands name an unchanged starting XI after their comfortable win over Romania. Turkey make three changes, and they’re all enforced: Orkun Kökçü, İsmail Yüksek and Merih Demiral are all suspended; Samet Akaydin, Salih Özcan and captain Hakan Çalhanoğlu take their places. Continue reading...

Reaction to Germany and Portugal crashing outSaturday’s buildup; You can contact Rob on email George Graham’s France are in the semi-finals despite scoring only three times in five games: one penalty and two own-goals. Theories on a postcard please. Hello and welcome to our coverage of day 23 of Euro 2024. It’s a big one for England, Switzerland, Turkey and the Netherlands, who are hoping to join Spain and France in the semi-finals. We’ll have reaction to last night’s games and all the buildup to today’s contests. Continue reading...