Both coaches Gareth Southgate (England) and Ronald Koeman (Netherlands) have memorable memories of Euro matches involving the Netherlands or England teams, according to Reuters.
Coach Gareth Southgate during England team training session.
Gareth Southgate's England and Ronald Koeman's Netherlands will meet in the Euro 2024 semi-finals at 2am on July 11 (Vietnam time). Before this match, the statistics of the two coaches with matches involving the Netherlands or England at the Euro playground were mentioned by the media.
The Netherlands team entered Euro 1988 with Ronald Koeman at the heart of the defence in a squad that included other stars, such as: Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Erwin - Koeman's brother, now his assistant coach at the Netherlands team.
England and the Netherlands met in the group stage of Euro 1988 after both had lost their opening matches. England were shocked by defeat to Ireland, while the Netherlands were beaten by the (former) Soviet Union.
In the England-Netherlands match that year, Van Basten gave the Netherlands the lead before Bryan Robson levelled for England. But Van Basten then scored two more goals, completing his hat-trick in the Netherlands' 3-1 win over England, which eliminated England from the tournament.
In the semi-finals, R. Koeman scored from the penalty spot in a 2-1 semi-final win over hosts Germany.
The Netherlands then won their first and only major trophy to date, beating the Soviet Union 2-0 in the final, and Ronald Koeman was one of six Dutch players selected in UEFA's team of the tournament.
Ronald Koeman played his last international game at the 1994 World Cup while Gareth Southgate made his England debut in late 1995 and was a regular in the England squad that won Euro 1996, when England were hosts.
Coach Ronald Koeman during a training session of the Dutch team.
England faced the Netherlands at Wembley Stadium in their final group game, with both teams level on four points at the top of Group A. And the hosts produced one of their finest performances ever in that game, storming into a 4-0 lead with Alan Shearer and Teddy Sheringham scoring twice each before Patrick Kluivert reduced the deficit to 4-1. That goal also sent them through to the knockout stages.
That win really gave England confidence in their chances of winning the title. England then won a penalty shootout against Spain in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals, they drew 1-1 with Germany and had to face another penalty shootout.
Both teams scored the first penalty before Southgate stepped up to take his sixth, but his shot was wide. Andreas Moeller then scored and Germany won. That year, Germany won the Euros with a comeback against the Czech Republic.
England went 22 years without a win against the Netherlands after that victory, but Southgate was in charge as they ended the disappointing run with a 1-0 win in a 2018 friendly, Ronald Koeman's first game as Netherlands manager.
Ronald Koeman avenged the debt a year later with the Netherlands' 3-1 win over Southgate's England in the Nations League semi-finals.
Now, both coaches are preparing to lead their teams to face each other in Dortmund, in the semi-final on July 11 (Vietnam time). There will be a winner and a loser after this match and their fate may still last after the tournament.
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