Virgil van Dijk wants referee to explain controversial penalty call in Netherlands’ Euro 2024 semi-final defeat to England – with Liverpool defender calling on match officials to be held ‘accountable’

The Dutch suffered semi-final heartache against the Three Lions in Dortmund, with Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins stepping off the bench to grab a dramatic last-minute winner for Gareth Southgate’s side. It is they who march on to face Spain in the final on Sunday.

Ronald Koeman saw his team take the lead in an entertaining encounter, as Xavi Simons crashed home a spectacular strike in the seventh minute, but England were level 11 minutes later after referee Felix Zwayer awarded a spot-kick for a challenge on Harry Kane by Denzel Dumfries.

Kane appeared to kick Dumfries’ boot when getting a shot away inside the box, but Zwayer pointed to the spot following a VAR review. Van Dijk was less than impressed with that decision and pondered on beIN Sports afterwards why officials do not have to explain themselves. The Liverpool defender said: “I don't know if I should say something about that. I said it to the Dutch media. I think it says it all that the refereee went in quite quickly after the game. I had no time to shake his hand. But it is what it is, the game is done, we lost, certain moments were obvious that they should have gone our way, but they didn't, whatever the outcome.

“It is difficult to accept this. It has been a tough year. We had a big dream and we felt we could have achieved it. They keep changing certain things, small changes that could have a big impact. Maybe it's a good thing that they could be held accountable as well. They didn't come here and speak to you and explain themselves like we have to when we do something wrong. That might be something. But I shouldn't speak about others and we have to look at ourselves.”

Van Dijk clashed with Zwayer on a couple of occasions, with a yellow card flashed in his direction for contesting a late decision that saw England awarded a goal kick despite the ball being glanced behind off the head of John Stones.