Video reviews sparked debate again when England beat Holland in the European Championship semi-finals.
One of the most talked about situations of the EC semi-final match between England and Holland was seen in the 14th minute of the game. The Dutch were chasing the ball in front of the goal Denzel Dumfries hit England who shot towards the goal Harry Kane on.
After the video inspection, the main referee of the match Felix Zwayer sentenced Dumfries to a yellow card and England to a penalty, with which Kane brought his team level.
After the match, Dumfires explained the situation to the media.
– The ball just fell between us. I wanted to block the shot, so I touched him,” Dumfires told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf by.
According to De Telegraaf, Dumfries was not surprised by the verdict.
– At that moment you know that they can give it (the penalty kick). It’s very annoying because you don’t do it on purpose. But you just have to keep going.
Also the head coach of Holland Ronald Koeman was dismayed by the German judge’s verdict. He described the verdict as “another VAR decision”.
Koeman also felt that a penalty should not have been awarded for the situation, as the boots of Dumfries and Kane collided as the Dutchman tried to block the Englishman’s shot.
– What should the defender do? Koeman asked at the press conference.
– I think such VAR decisions break football, Koeman continued.
The head coach said that he was also dissatisfied with many other decisions of the judges in the semi-final. In his opinion, there were other situations in the match where the referees whistled too easily. Koeman still did not blame the referees for the defeat.
– That is not the reason why we lost. In the end we lost because the opponent scored a great second goal.
England scored their 2–1 winning goal at the very end of the match and advanced to the final match to be played against Spain on Sunday.