Netherlands started quickly and took an early lead, but England were undeterred. Kane had a slight contact with a Netherlands defender during a shot and the referee awarded a penalty.
The decision immediately sparked a backlash within the Netherlands, who felt Kane had reached out to a defender in his shot and did not deserve a penalty. However, England seized the opportunity and Kane took the opportunity to equalise the scores.
The game came to an end, and the atmosphere on the field was tense to the extreme. In the 90th minute, Watkins scored the winning goal for England to complete the comeback.
However, a previous decision sparked controversy again. Netherlands should have won a corner, but the referee wrongly awarded England a goal kick.
Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk unexpectedly received a yellow card warning when he tried to communicate with the referee, an incident that further fueled the Netherlands' discontent.
It is worth mentioning that the referee of this game, Zvajel, was banned for being involved in a match-fixing scandal, and his impartiality was questioned a lot before the game.
After the game, Netherlands coach Koeman bluntly criticised the referee's decisions, arguing that they directly affected the outcome of the game. Kane, meanwhile, insisted that he had indeed suffered a foul and that the referee had made the right decision.
Despite this, England qualified with controversy and will face Spain, who have been eye-catching in this European Championship.
Regardless of the eventual champion, the controversial decision undoubtedly added a layer of complexity to the tournament as a whole, and also raised deeper questions about the fairness and accuracy of referee decisions in football.
More than just a game, the semi-final between England and Netherlands reveals the huge impact that referee decisions can have on the outcome of a match in the world of football.
For England, the road to qualification has been controversial, but they are on the doorstep of the final, ready for the final challenge.