Denmark have qualified for the UEFA Euro 2020 round of 16, following an outstanding win over Russia. The Danes needed a little help from Belgium, which the world number 1 provided by beating Finland.
For the Danes – and all of the football fraternity in general – the last ten days have encapsulated the lowest lows and the highest highs the sport can offer. Nine days ago, Christian Eriksen lay motionless in the far end of the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, with a shell-shocked Denmark team forming a wall around him as he received treatment. Nine days later, Denmark are through to the round-of-16 of the Euro 2020, after beating Russia 4-1 in the same stadium.
With Finland and Russia both on 3 points each, Denmark knew that winning alone won’t help them seal passage to the next round. They needed to beat Russia and hope that Belgium beat Finland while swinging a negative goal difference around. The Danes started their match against Russia positively, just as they did against Belgium. Youngster Mikkel Damsgaard gave them the lead in the 38th minute with a superbly taken goal. The Sampdoria winger curled the ball above and beyond Matvei Safonov from distance – the Russian custodian left rooted to his spot.
Yussuf Poulsen doubled Denmark’s lead in the 58th minute as he pounced on a poor back pass before simply tapping the ball into an empty net. However, Danish hearts looked destined to be broken when Russia were awarded a penalty, which Artem Dzyuba took to make the scoreline 2-1.
Nevertheless, just when all seemed lost, Chelsea’s Andreas Christensen stepped up to score one of the goals of the tournament. The defender blasted home a loose ball from range, sparking wild celebrations inside the stadium. Left wing-back Joachim Maehle added a fourth late on to confirm the win for Denmark, and subsequently, a place in the knockout stages.
In the other Group B match, Belgium recorded a routine 2-0 win over Finland. Lukas Hradecky inadvertently diverted the ball into his own net for Belgium’s first before Romelu Lukaku added a second. As a result, Finland slipped to third in the group and must now wait for the results of all the other groups to learn their fate.
