Koeman confident ahead of England semi-final despite travel delays

By Sports Desk July 09, 2024

Netherlands head coach Ronald Koeman insisted that travel delays experienced by his team will not affect them ahead of their Euro 2024 semi-final with England on Tuesday.

The Netherlands were due to travel from their tournament training base in Wolfsburg to Dortmund, but those plans were disrupted by a blockage on the route that caused their service to be cancelled.

Instead, Koeman and his squad flew to Dortmund, arriving at their hotel on Tuesday evening. 

"It was not a problem, we had a good rest this afternoon, we were on the plane for just 30 minutes, arrived at our hotel and we can have a good rest tonight,” Koeman said in an interview with UEFA after his scheduled pre-match press conference had to be cancelled because of the delay.

This will be the fourth meeting between the two sides at a major tournament, with England and the Netherlands both winning once. 

England have triumphed just once in their last nine meetings with the Netherlands in all competitions, but Koeman is expecting a tough encounter against the Three Lions. 

“We know that there is really not much difference between the two teams, it’s really 50-50 in my opinion,” Koeman said. “But we will need the perfect game to win.

“We know they have a lot of individual qualities but both teams are really strong and it will be a good fight,” he predicted.

The Netherlands came from a goal behind to secure their place in the semi-finals of the competition, beating Turkiye 2-1 in Berlin last Saturday. 

England, meanwhile, needed penalties to edge past Switzerland, something Koeman believes could be an advantage ahead of kick-off. 

“England had to play extra time in their last game (against Switzerland) so maybe that could be a difference in the latter stages of the match," Koeman said.

"We are sharp, we are focused and we are looking forward to playing a good match against them."

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