It was the performance England had been waiting for, but for Phil Foden , it was perhaps the opponent he had needed. For 45 minutes, one of the Premier League’s finest and the national squad’s most capable looked every inch the star he has become: a player as adept at finding space as exploiting it, as consistent in his decision-making as in his execution. After arguably making five false starts, sporadically showing his gifted touch but too often littered with horizontal unimagination, Foden became a playmaker, a goal threat and a counter-attacking fulcrum all at once against Netherlands .
It was a showing many had demanded he either produce or be replaced, with options aplenty within the 26 but his manager’s trust - as with Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane and others who have drawn questioning - has been immovable. This time, he was rewarded with not just a sign of what’s possible, but of what might be the exact route required to claim victory when England now meet Spain in Sunday’s Euro 2024 final. There are so many parts to that though, from England obviously attacking with more pace as a team, to the Dutch leaving spaces as they attacked themselves - the first real opponent who have gone at Gareth Southgate’s team for any sustained period or with any level of technical quality.
They’ll face that again in four days. And yet England were better, and Foden was most improved of the lot. Around that, Foden was always on hand to receive possession, always able to find.
