Eriksen catches fire to keep run going and slay dragons
WALES slipped to a 2-0 Nations League defeat to Denmark as Christian Eriksen continued his incredible goalscoring form in Aarhus yesterday.
The Tottenham midfielder scored in each half – the second a contentious penalty – to make it 15 goals in his last 18 appearances for Denmark.
Captain for the night Gareth Bale admitted the decision to award Denmark the penalty for their second goal took the game away from Wales.
“I can’t comment too much, but for me it wasn’t a penalty, a soft-given penalty and if it’s not at home it is not given. At 1-0 we were still fighting hard,” he said.
Positives
“Disappointing to lose, obviously we wanted to win. We have to look at the positives; we are still working on things, it is a process but we want to get results. We have to keep going and working hard on the training pitch.”
On being handed the armband in the absence of Ashley Williams, Bale added: “It is a massive honour for me personally but it is not about me, it is about the team.”
It was a result which brought Ryan Giggs’ side down to earth after they had opened their Nations League campaign with a pulsating 4-1 victory over Ireland.
Bale largely had a game to forget as Eriksen won the battle of the two superstars hands-down.
The Danish public were relieved to see their senior squad out in force again after the players’ image rights row which had embarrassed them during the last week.
The opening quarter was a sparring exercise with Aaron Ramsey and Thomas Delaney firing over from range.
Wales were dictating the tempo, but there was a moment of real concern when Simon Kjaer flicked on Henrik Dalsgaard’s long throw and James Chester had to clear at the far post with Mathias Jorgensen lurking.
Thomas Delaney then sent a volley whistling wide moments later as Denmark showed signs of stirring.
Bale went close with an angled drive after Aaron Ramsey won possession in midfield and the Real Madrid forward was left one-on-one with Kjaer.
However, Wales were to pay the price for leaving Denmark dangerman Eriksen unattended on 32 minutes. Eriksen controlled Dalsgaard’s cross and his low right-foot effort beat Wayne Hennessey to go in off the far post.
Hennessey prevented Denmark from doubling their lead four minutes later with a super one-handed stop from Pione Sisto’s half-volley.
Wales almost profited from some pinball in the Denmark penalty area at the start of the second-half, but Ramsey saw his effort blocked and Bale drove a free-kick into the chest of Kjaer.
However, the exertions of their win over Ireland appeared to be catching up with them as Denmark took command and the game was put beyond them on 63 minutes when Ethan Ampadu was harshly adjudged to have handled Viktor Fischer’s cross.
Ampadu could hardly get out of the way of the ball as he was standing only a few yards away from Fischer, but Eriksen showed no compassion as he beat Hennessey with ease, as Denmark saw the game out comfortably to move top of Nations League B Group Four.