EURO 2020
England v Denmark: referee Danny Makkelie to officiate semi-final
The Dutch referee, who officiated England's win over Germany in the round of 16, will be in charge of the Three Lions again in their semi-final against Denmark.
Tonight at 9:00 p.m. at Wembley, 38-year-old Danny Makkelie will be the man in charge of justice in England's match against Denmark.
Makkelie: part-time police inspector and referee
Dutchman Makkelie is well-known by the English, not only for being inolved in their win over Germany in the round of 16, but for another recent high-profile game, the Champions League semi-final that saw Real Madrid confront Chelsea at Valdebebas.
However, even though they know the official inside the lines of the football pitch, they possibly don't know that he is also a part-time police inspector in Rotterdam.
Danny Makkelie has officiated 180 matches in the Dutch Eredivisie since he started whistling in 2009. Since then, he has also been a part of the big stage too, such as the Champions League, where he debuted in 2014, and the Europa League, two years before that.
The huge mistake of Danny Makkelie
Last March saw perhaps his most famous match of recent years, a qualifier between Serbia and Portugal for the 2022 World Cup. He was engaged in huge controversy when Cristiano Ronaldo appeared to score to make it 3-2 for his side, but Makkelie understood that the ball had not crossed the line and did not award the goal resulting in the game ending up a 2-2 draw. The Portuguese star showed his anger as he left the field.
Makkelie, for his part, publicly acknowledged his mistake, and apologized to Fernando Santos, the Portuguese coach, after the match.
His debut in Euro 2020
Being as Euro 2020 is his first major international tournament, Makkelie has refereed three games so far, including the previous Three Lions' 2-0 win against Germany in the round of 16, where he showed five yellow cards as warnings for Harry Maguire, Kalvin Phillips and Declan Rice in the English side, and for Germany's Robin Gosens and Matthias Ginter.
The Dutch referee also officiated Italy's opening win against Turkey and Russia's win over Finland, both in the group stage.
No changes in the team of officials
Makkelie will be joined by the same refereeing team. Dutch officials Jan de Bries and Hessel Steegstra will act as assistant referees, while Pol van Boekel will carry on serving as the video assistant referee (VAR). Kevin Blom, Christian Gittelmann and Pawel Gil will serve as the three assistants to the VAR.
The fourth official is Romanian Ovidiu Hategan.