Monday, June 21, 2021
After the Eriksen collapse
Denmark writes emotional EM fairy tale
It’s the history of the European Championship: Before the group finals, Denmark is in last place in the table without a point. Thanks to two dream goals and Belgium’s late shooting help in the parallel game against Finland, the team around the sick playmaker Christian Eriksen made it to the round of 16.
Incredible happy ending thanks to Belgian rifle aid: Denmark reached the last sixteen at the European Championships even without its leader Christian Eriksen. The passionately storming European champions from 1992 defeated Russia 4-1 (1-0). Because Belgium won 2-0 against Finland at the same time, the Scandinavians even climbed to second place in Group B. Russia was eliminated.
Kasper Damsgaard’s goal (38th) caused parking in Copenhagen, where 25,000 fans were allowed, to shake for the first time after a tough start. After a terrible misunderstanding in the Russian defense, Yussuf Poulsen provided the second jubilee (59th). The mood dampened by a controversial penalty from Artjom Dzjuba (70th) was made up for by the news of the Belgian goals and the goals of Andreas Christensen (79th) and Joakim Mähle (82nd).
Eriksen wasn’t in the stadium, but was omnipresent. Again the oversized jersey with its “10” was worn on the grass like in the second group game in Parken against Belgium (1: 2). Again the audience sang fervently “You’ll never walk alone” in front of the teams’ entrance. So there were goose bumps again, albeit not as extreme as a few days before.
Coach Hjulmand switched
Russia was in the comfortable position of being able to wait in peace and wait for the counterattack. In fact, not much was missing and the guests would have taken the lead. Alexander Golowin started a solo after the Danes lost the ball, but hit one hook too many, putting himself in a much worse position and failed with his shot at goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel (17th). Such attacks were not uncommon.
Defensively, the Russians were extremely safe, the Danes hardly came up with promising combinations in the build-up of the game. Coach Kasper Hjulmand reacted after a good 20 minutes: he switched from a four-man to a three-man defense and pushed Andreas Christensen into midfield to create an outnumbered player. The best chance was a long-range shot by Pierre Emile Höjbjerg (28th).
After half an hour it was more than obvious how much Eriksen, who had been watching the game in his home in Odense after his hospital release, was missing his team with his ideas. Damgaard’s flash of inspiration came at just the right time: played by Höjbjerg, he cleverly broke away from his opponent and hit the corner from 17 meters.
The goal, scored with the first shot on Matwei Safonov’s goal, was by no means in the air, but it turned everything upside down. Now the Russians had to give up their wait-and-see attitude and take action themselves. They found it just as difficult as the Danes before – who in turn waited and waited for a counterattack. They use the vacated spaces resolutely and driven by their increasingly soulful fans.
Belgium with a perfect preliminary round
The Danish fans were also able to cheer because there was support in the parallel game. Belgium played a perfect preliminary round as the third team. At the end of Group B in St. Petersburg, the world number one, who was already in the round of 16, also won his third and last game against newcomer Finland 2-0 (0-0).
As group winners, the Red Devils achieved the ideal yield of nine points, as did Italy and the Netherlands before. Belgium’s victory leaves the Finns worried about reaching the round of 16 behind group runner-up Denmark.
Belgium’s winning goal came from an own goal by Finland goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky (74th). A few minutes before the faux pas of the Bundesliga goalkeeper Bayer Leverkusen, a goal by Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku was not recognized by Munich referee Felix Brych after being checked by the video referee for being offside. Lukaku then scored the 2-0 in the 81st minute.
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