Tottenham star Micky van de Ven has warned that he is not afraid of facing Bukayo Saka as Netherlands prepare to face England in the Euro 2024 semi-finals on Wednesday night. The Three Lions scraped through to the last four after beating Switzerland on penalties, while the Netherlands had a slightly easier time of it, though they rode their luck during a 2-1 comeback win over Turkey.
Saka scored the all-important equaliser for England, and the strike was one of the few exhibitions of quality from the Three Lions during this tournament, with Gareth Southgate's men struggling to impose themselves on games, winning only one from five games in 90 minutes so far.
Nevertheless, they are within 90 minutes of the Euro 2024 final in Berlin, and that will breed belief in itself. Having said that, the Netherlands will present the biggest test England have faced so far, at least based on the quality they have within their squad.
Among them is Tottenham man van de Ven, who was asked about the prospect of facing Arsenal man Saka, something he is not concerned about. "Saka is a wonderful footballer with lots of pace but [Virgil] van Dijk and [Nathan] Ake have a lot of pace too and I am sure they can handle him," he said at a press conference. "I know Saka very well from him playing at Arsenal. I faced him twice. We will see if the manager will start me."
Liverpool star Cody Gakpo, who has been the Netherlands' star man so far, then jumped in and said: "Micky is the fastest player ever in the Premier League." To which Van de Ven added: "That's hard to say but if you look at the data, I think you know the answer." Van de Ven's sprint of 23.23 mph was the fastest speed clocked by any Premier League player last season.
Liverpool star Gakpo has spent much of this tournament playing on the left, showing some of his best form of the season. That has led to questions over why Jurgen Klopp regularly played the winger on the right last season, leading to inconsistent form during his time at Anfield.
"I was a left winger before so that's always been my preference," said Gakpo during the press conference. "But in the last one and a half years, the coach (Jurgen Klopp) needed me to play somewhere else and that's what I tried to do at my best."
The winger added: "This has been a very beautiful tournament with our group. The feeling's really strong. We're in the semi-final and this is not the end of the tournament. Every single team that is here wants to get to the final and we're no different. It's not for nothing that England are in the semi-finals. They have a really good group of player and it's a fantastic squad. So it will hopefully be a beautiful game."
Gakpo is currently the joint-top scorer at the Euros with three goals, while the only players still at the tournament who are close to overtaking him are Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane, Fabiran Ruiz, Dani Olmo and teammate Donyell Malen, who are all on two goals.