Good things come to those wait, and Ollie Watkins had been waiting patiently on the sidelines for the nearly the entirety of Euro 2024. But in Dortmund, all it took was a 10-minute cameo off the bench for him to deliver a show-stopping performance to leave the Netherlands speechless and send England to their second-successive Euros final.
Watkins had been a mere spectator for England's games against Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Switzerland, only getting 20 minutes in the 1-1 draw with Denmark. But he knew that Wednesday would be the night he would get the nod, and the moment he would make all the difference.
"I swear on my kids' life, I told Cole Palmer earlier today, we'd be coming on and he'd set me up and I'd score. And it happened," he told ITV moments after his last-gasp winner, which was indeed laid on by Chelsea's Palmer.
The striker had a sense of destiny about the occasion and England have seemed destined for something special in this tournament. How else to explain their puzzling passage through Germany? The Three Lions stunk out the group stage and needed moments of brilliance from Jude Bellingham and Bukayo Saka to get them to the last four.
They conceded the first goal for the third consecutive knockout game, but once more they rallied and are heading for Berlin on Sunday, all thanks to the understated leadership of Gareth Southgate.
Spain will be confident of winning the final if they can replicate the wonderful form they have shown throughout the tournament, but they should not underestimate this England's team capacity to turn dust to gold.
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