WOLFSBURG: A strong Premier League influence on both sides could ensure an exciting game when England take on the Netherlands in the European Championship semi-finals, Dutch defender Micky van de Ven said on Monday.
The vast majority of the English squad are home-based while the 26-man Dutch squad at the tournament includes seven players at Premier League clubs
"If you see the quality of the players from both teams, I think you can expect that the level and the rhythm of the game will be really high," Van de Ven told a press conference.
"Hopefully, it's us that will have more of the ball than England so that it is England who do the running, but I expect a high intensity game," said the Tottenham Hotspur defender, who has been used only as a substitute in Germany.
"We understand they have taken a lot of flak from the English media but they are in the semi-finals … that says all it needs to about the English team. I think they play defensively but we will go and analysis them properly tonight, but what I can say is they have a lot of quality."
Cody Gakpo, who plays for Liverpool, said given the quality of players in the England setup he hoped for a really good game on Wednesday.
Gakpo, 25, moved to the Premier League two season ago with mixed results, having been forced to play in a variety of attacking roles, but at Euro 2024 has clearly shown he is best on the left wing. His three goals make him the tournament's joint top scorer.
"I was a left wing before (moving to Liverpool) and that's always been my preference but over the last one and a half years, the coach needed me to play somewhere else and I tried to do my best at it."
The move to England had made him a better player, he added.
"I think a lot of changed in my life, moving country to Liverpool, a big big club, amazing club, amazing fans and very, very good players surrounding me as well.
"I learnt a lot from the manager (Juergen Klopp). That progressed me a lot as a person and as a player. I'm very happy with the move I made."
Gakpo said the Dutch squad had felt confident in Germany.
"There was always belief in the group that we could go far. Apart from one match, the feeling has always been good," he said, referring to the 3-2 loss to Austria which condemned the Dutch to third place in Group D and sent them into the last 16 as luck losers.
They have since beaten Romania 3-0 and Turkey 2-1.
"Hopefully, this is not the last you've seen of us," Gakpo said. - Reuters