Virgil van Dijk slams England v Netherlands referee after ‘dreams shattered’

The Liverpool defender was left upset with many decisions made by referee Felix Zwayer in Dortmund

Virgil van Dijk has hit out at referee Felix Zwayer after Netherlands suffered a heartbreaking loss to England in the Euro 2024 semi-finals.

A controversial penalty awarded to the Three Lions in the first half was labelled as a “disgraceful” decision by Gary Neville at half-time.

And Van Dijk was left upset at full-time after Ollie Watkins’ last-minute winner when Zwayer was nowhere to be found following the final whistle.

• FOLLOW LIVE: Reaction as England beat Netherlands to reach Euro 2024 final

“Obviously throughout the whole tournament we've seen so many sides to our team,” Van Dijk told Be In Sports. “Good sides in the attacking and defensive form, but also a bad side against Austria, today was a good game, for many reasons, with and without the ball, an intense game.

“They created good moments, so did we. To concede in the last minute, it's difficult to accept. Especially when it's a knockout semi-final and it shattered our dreams.

"I don't know what to say, I don't know if I should say something about this, I said it to our Dutch media, it says it all that the referee went in quite quickly after the game, had no time to shake his hand.

“The game is done and we lost, it's hard to take. Certain moments, it's obvious it should have gone our way. It didn't. "Whatever the outcome, it's tough, it's difficult to take. We had a big dream, we thought we could achieve that here.

Netherlands's Virgil van Dijk appeals to referee Felix Zwayer (Nick Potts/PA Wire)

"I don't know, they keep changing certain things that could have a big impact. Let them come to you and explain certain moments, like we have to do, that might be something. I shouldn't speak about others, we have to look at ourselves."