(Reuters) – England’s newly crowned hero Ollie Watkins kept a promise to unused substitutes Dean Henderson and Lewis Dunk when he made a beeline for the bench after his 90th-minute goal in the 2-1 semi-final victory over the Netherlands at Euro 2024.
Watkins, who has played just 30 minutes in the tournament and was an 80th-minute substitute on Wednesday, sympathised with Henderson, the team’s third goalkeeper, and Dunk, a centre back, who have yet to see a minute of action.
“I did make a promise to Deano and Dunky that, if I scored, I would run over and celebrate with them,” Watkins said on England’s in-house show “Lions’ Den” on Thursday at the team’s training base in Blankenhain.
“Sometimes you can feel a little bit left out because you’re not on the pitch making that impact,” the 28-year-old added. “So me celebrating with them, obviously I’ve been on sitting on the bench experiencing that and I just wanted to make it special for everyone. And yeah, it was nice that they all jumped on the pitch and could be a part of it.”
Watkins proved to be a soothsayer for England, predicting the massive impact he and Cole Palmer, who also entered the game in the 80th minute, would have in the wild finish in Dortmund, with Palmer providing the pass for Watkins’ gorgeous goal.
“We were playing together at half-time, just passing to each other, and (Watkins) said to me we’re going to come on, and I’m going to set him up and he’s going to score – and when it happened, it was mad,” said Palmer, who sat alongside Watkins on Thursday’s show.
Palmer said the Aston Villa forward had been making picture-perfect runs with similarly brilliant finishes in camp for weeks.
“You’ve got to have that belief when you’re going on the pitch to that you’re going to bring something to the team, bring some energy, and for me, when I’ve got the ball there, I knew I had to be selfish and shoot because I may not get another opportunity,” Watkins said.
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For a moment, it looked like Watkins and Palmer, who are both making their major tournament debuts for England, would not see any action on Wednesday after Bukayo Saka appeared to score England’s second goal. But VAR showed it was offside.
“Obviously, in a way (the offside) was a blessing, we got opportunity to make the difference, and (manager Gareth Southgate) said, ‘Just go on and win it for us’. And I think we’ve done that,” Watkins said.
Watkins and Palmer praised Southgate, who was lambasted earlier in the tournament for his rigidity with the squad and the team’s dull play, but has now become the first England men’s manager to lead the team to two major tournament finals.
“The togetherness that all the players have, he’s created that, it’s our first tournament and we can see how close the lads are and the amount of time he puts into the lads to make us better and for the matches,” Palmer said.
While the team celebrated in the dressing room and on the bus back to the hotel, they have already turned their attention to Sunday’s final against Spain.
“Obviously it’s a short turnaround and it’s a massive, massive game to change our lives, our family’s life and to make everyone proud, so that’s what we’re trying to do,” Palmer said.
The players did take time to watch video on social media of England fans celebrating Wednesday’s win back home with pints of beer flying and limbs flailing.
“Just obviously keep supporting us. One more game to go,” Watkins said to the fans. “The support doesn’t go unnoticed, all the boys see the videos.”
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Alison Williams)
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