According to former referee Jonas Eriksson, the referee should have overturned the penalty decision in the EURO 2024 semi-final between the Netherlands and England this morning.
The situation that led to England’s controversial penalty in the semi-final match this morning
In the EURO 2024 semi-final this morning, England defeated the Netherlands 2-1. The Three Lions’ victory was decided in the 90th minute with a valuable goal from Ollie Watkins. But before that, controversy erupted regarding England’s penalty.
In the 14th minute, after reviewing the situation on the screen, referee Felix Zwayer determined that Dumfries had fouled Harry Kane. Therefore, he decided to award England a penalty. On the 11m mark, Kane scored the equalizer for the Three Lions.
Despite being British and a big supporter of the England team, both Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher criticized the decision of referee Felix Zwayer. They said that the Netherlands did not deserve to be awarded a penalty.
Former FIFA referee Jonas Eriksson also said that referee Felix Zwayer made a mistake when he awarded the penalty. But instead of analyzing Denzel Dumfries’ tackle, he discovered a new incident of Bukayo Saka’s handball.
Before the ball reached Harry Kane, Saka fired a shot. The ball hit the Dutch defense and then hit Saka’s hand. However, VAR missed this remarkable incident.
The referee reviewed the situation but ignored Saka’s handball.
“I was quite surprised that the referee did not check the situation carefully and changed his decision to award a penalty. According to the law, the referee can award a penalty but I do not think this is the correct decision. It is clear that the ball touched Bukayo Saka’s hand. That means there is no penalty,” former referee Jonas Eriksson said on Swedish television channel SVT.
Jonas Eriksson is a FIFA referee who officiated at the 2014 World Cup. He was also assigned to referee Chelsea’s 2013 Community Shield and Liverpool’s 2016 Europa League final.
After the match, coach Ronald Koeman, center-back Virgil van Dijk and many Dutch players also implicitly criticized the German referee. However, the decision had been made and could not be changed. With this defeat, the Netherlands had to sadly stop at the semi-finals of EURO 2024.