Dutch football fans have begun streaming into Germany ahead of the national team’s first appearance in the semi-finals of the men’s European championship for 20 years.

Oranje will take on England in Dortmund at 9pm, with Spain awaiting the winners in Sunday’s final after beating France 2-1 on Tuesday evening.

Head coach Ronald Koeman said his team was two matches away from achieving “something that seemed unreal” after an unconvincing start to the tournament, with the 3-2 defeat by Austria in the final group match triggering a barrage of criticism both by the media and within the camp.

He acknowledged that the Dutch team had been helped by a favourable draw that pitted them against Romania in the last 16 despite finishing third in their group.

“But I do think we shouldn’t be too dismissive about a place in the last four,” he told AD.nl. “The differences in international football are often small. Look at England, who twice needed extra time against Slovakia as well as Switzerland.”

Plans derailed

The team’s travel plans were disrupted on Tuesday when the train taking them from Wolfsburg to Dortmund was cancelled, forcing them to catch a flight instead.

“In the end it was a shorter journey than by train. So it was better to get here this way,” Koeman said at a press conference in Dortmund. “It’s fine. Luckily we have very capable people at the KNVB [football association] who respond immediately.”

Upwards of 75,000 Dutch supporters are expected to make the short journey to the Ruhr city, which is less than 100 km from the border. The motoring organisation ANWB reported queues from 7am on the main motorway crossings at Arnhem, Heerlen and Venlo, where German police are carrying out extra checks.

An estimated 40,000 English supporters are also expected to be in the city, but the bars and streets were a sea of orange at midday on Wednesday.

Prime minister Dick Schoof is in Washington for a Nato summit, where he and his British counterpart Keir Starmer will have to rely on staff to update them on the score as mobile phones are banned in the meetings. Schoof is said to be making plans to travel to Berlin on Sunday if Oranje reach the final.

Fan walk

Thousands of Dutch supporters are taking part in a 3.5 km “fan walk” from Kleppingstrasse to the Westfalen stadium, home of Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, at 4.45pm.

Koeman is largely expected to stick with the team that started against Turkey in the quarter-final, which came from a goal down to win 2-1 in a frenetic second half.

That means no starting place for Wout Weghorst, the centre-forward who is under contract with English Premier League club Burnley but has spent the last three seasons on loan, most recently in Germany with Hoffenheim.

Backing Memphis

Koeman could bring in Borussia Dortmund striker Donyell Malen on the right in place of Ajax’s Steven Bergwijn, who has been struggling with form and fitness and was taken off at half-time in the last two matches.

But the coach has ruled out dropping under-fire forward Memphis Depay or switching to a five-man defence. “Memphis is my striker,” he said. “He can play better, but that’s down to others as well. He’s part of the team.”

If the Dutch progress to the final they will have a chance to avenge their defeat by Spain in the 2010 World Cup final, when Andrés Iniesta scored the only goal late in extra time.

One certainty is that neither they nor England will be lining up against most the exciting 16-year-old in world football. Lamine Yamal, who scored a stunning equaliser against France, celebrates his 17th birthday on Saturday, the day before the final.