Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins fired England into the Euro 2024 final after a stunning late winner against The Netherlands.
England fell behind to an outstanding Xavi Simons finish from outside of the box, but Harry Kane equalised from the spot in the same half after a questionable penalty call.
From then on, the game was pretty dull, with both sides not really creating much, until Gareth Southgate made the brave call to take off captain Harry Kane.
Aston Villa’s Player of the Season was introduced into the action with about 15 minutes left on the clock, and as the time was heading towards the stoppage, it felt like another extra time was on the horizon.
But like Ollie Watkins has done for Villa all season long, he made a brilliant run inside the penalty area, was then fed a lovely weighted ball by Cole Palmer, and from a very tight angle, he fired the ball into the bottom corner.
It now means that England will face Spain in the final of Euro 2024, with several Villa players reacting to Watkins’ goal on social media.
Morgan Rogers and Alex Moreno react to Ollie Watkins’ winning goal for England
Morgan Rogers took to his Instagram story to simply write ‘wowww’, with Alex Moreno reacting to Villa’s IG post about Watkins by saying: ‘what a player’.
Ollie Watkins doing what he does best
Aston Villa wouldn’t have secured Champions League football without Watkins, he is simply an outstanding footballer and one of the best in Europe.
One man who deserves huge credit for his rise is the man in the Villa dugout.
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Unai Emery has made a mockery out of Steven Gerrard and helped transform Watkins’ game because it was one of the best moments of his career.
But it’s not done yet. England fell at the final hurdle at Euro 2020 when they were beaten on penalties by Italy and now they will want to turn the wrong of that Wembley nightmare into a dream.
A vibrant and outstanding Spain side stand in their way of glory and winning their first major trophy since 1966.
The question has to be asked. Should Watkins start? Kane is looking leggy. To put it simply, he wouldn’t have made the run Watkins did, and that’s one of the big problems.
But whether the Villa man starts or not, now Southgate needs to wake up and make more of these brave calls because look at the end result!
