Euro 2020: Football fans outraged by England's winning goal in semi-final win over Denmark

While England celebrates its first shot at football glory for more than half a century, fans are blowing up social media with accusations of skulduggery during the dramatic Euro 2020 semi-final victory over Denmark.

At Wembley, the English needed an extra-time penalty from captain Harry Kane to seal a 2-1 victory over the plucky Danes and progress to meet Italy in the final on Monday (NZ time).

The result marks England's first major final since 1966, when they won the World Cup, giving hope that - as the famous song goes - football may finally come home.

But the matchwinning play has become shrouded in controversy, with social media claiming the penalty should never have been awarded and that English fans tried to distract Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, as he prepared to face Kane's spot kick.

While images of the alleged laser pen could quite easily have been doctored - and not for the first time on social media - other aspects of the incident were harder to dispute.

On BeIN Sports commentary team, Schmeichel's father Peter - himself a Euro winner with Denmark in 1992 - insisted England forward Raheem Sterling milked contact in the penalty area to fool the referee and video officials failed to call the play up.

"They made a really big mistake on the penalty and this will be debated for a long, long time," he says. "It's a hard one to take, because it's not a penalty.

"I would have been much more relaxed and acceptable if they'd scored on one of the many chances they created, but unfortunately, the referee made a really big mistake, in my opinion."

Schmeichel Snr was not alone in his view, with former Arsenal manager and current FIFA global football development chief Arsene Wenger, also on the commentary team, among those supporting his claims.

Commentators also drew attention to the presence of a second football that rolled onto the pitch, as Sterling made his run into the penalty area.

The Danes became the tournament's Cinderella team, when star Christian Eriksen collapsed in cardiac arrest during their opening loss to Finland. After losing to Belgium, they kept their hopes alive with a 4-1 victory over Russia that saw them edge ahead of the Finns, into the knockout stages.

Victory over Wales in the round of 16 was followed by another over the Czech Republic to reach the semis.

Join us at 7am Monday for live updates of the Euro 2020 final between England and Italy