Netherlands have been handed a potential advantage for their Euro 2024 semi-final against England in Dortmund, with the Westfalenstadion’s Yellow Wall set to turn orange for the game.

The 25,000-capacity southern terrace of Borussia Dortmund’s home ground is one of the most famous stands in world football and rivals Anfield’s equally iconic Kop for the atmosphere fans there generate.

Europe’s largest freestanding grandstand looks poised to become a sea of orange rather than white on Wednesday thanks to the Netherlands being notionally designated the home team for the fixture.

That has seen Uefa hand the Dutch Football Association (KNVB) 8,000 tickets in the stand for its supporters, with its English counterpart given tickets at the opposite end of the ground.

Although England fans could still get their hands on many of the remaining seats in the southern terrace, they are likely to be competing against other Dutch supporters, who are expected to dominate that section of the stadium.

Dortmund is staging the joint most matches at Euro 2024, with Wednesday’s the sixth and last to be played there.

The previous five have all seen the notional home team take over the southern terrace, with Turkey twice turning it into a Red Wall during the group stages. It was predominantly blue for Italy and France’s group games there, while it became white for Germany’s dramatic last-16 victory over Denmark. Indeed, the stadium has become something of a fortress for the Germans down the years.

The fortunes of other teams whose fans have colonised the southern stand at Euro 2024 have been decidedly mixed. Turkey lost against Portugal there before beating Georgia, Italy struggled to see off Albania, and France were held 1-1 by Poland.

How big a part any Orange Wall will play on Wednesday, therefore, remains to be seen.

How do I buy England tickets?

Fans can apply for tickets for any team via the Uefa Euro 2024 ticket portal. 

England’s route to the semi-finals

England narrowly beat Serbia 1-0 in their opening match of the group state, thanks to Jude Bellingham’s early header, and then drew with Denmark with a performance that drew plenty of criticism. Performance-wise, the 0-0 draw with Slovenia was little better.

In the first knockout match, against Slovakia, England were indebted to Kane’s close-range header which won the game after Bellingham scored an overhead kick to equalise little more than a minute before the final whistle. 

In the quarter-finals, Trent Alexander-Arnold slammed home the decisive kick to give them a shoot-out victory over Switzerland after the teams had drawn 1-1 after extra time.