Eriksen easily beats Bale in battle of the superstars
Wales slipped to a Nations League defeat against Denmark as Christian Eriksen continued his incredible goalscoring form in Aarhus.
The Tottenham midfielder scored in each half – the second a contentious penalty – to make it 15 goals in his last 18 appearances for Denmark.
It was a result which brought Ryan Giggs’ side down to earth after they had opened their campaign with a pulsating 4-1 victory over the Republic of Ireland.
Gareth Bale captained Wales for the first time with veteran defender Ashley Williams rested after the Republic win on Thursday. But Bale largely had a game to forget as Eriksen won the battle of the two superstars hands-down.
Giggs’ tinkering after such a quick turnaround came in defence. James Chester replaced Williams and Chris Gunter was back to win his 89th cap as Connor Roberts was pushed forward and David Brooks omitted.
The Danish public were
0 Spurs midfielder Christian Eriksen has now scored 15 goals in his last 18 appearances for Denmark.
relieved to see their senior squad out in force again after the players’ image rights row which had embarrassed them during the last week.
Denmark had fielded lower-league and futsal players in their 3-0 friendly defeat by Slovakia on Wednesday, but this was a completely different examination for Wales.
It had not been a smooth build-up for Wales either as a technical fault with their plane had delayed their arrival in Aarhus until the early hours of yesterday morning.
The opening quarter was a sparring exercise with Aaron Ramsey and Thomas Delaney firing over from range, and Kasper Schmeichel gathering at the second attempt under pressure from Roberts.
Wales were dictating the tempo of the contest, but
there was a moment of real concern when Simon Kjaer flicked on Henrik Dalsgaard’s long throw and Chester had to clear at the far post with Mathias Jorgensen lurking.
The visitors were to pay the price of leaving Denmark dangerman Eriksen unattended after 32 minutes. He controlled Dalsgaard’s cross and his low right-foot effort beat Hennessey to go in off the far post.
Hennessey prevented Denmark from doubling their lead four minutes later with a brilliant one-handed stop from Pione Sisto’s half-volley.
Ramsey saw his effort blocked and Bale drove a freekick into the chest of Kjaer at thestartofthesecondhalf.but the exertions of their Republic win appeared to be catching up with them as Denmark
took command. Hennessey held Yussuf Poulsen’s header under his crossbar and Martin Braithwaite prodded wide.
The game was put beyond Wales after 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.
“I can’t comment too much but for me it wasn’t a penalty, a soft penalty and if it’s not at home it is not given,” said Bale afterwards.
Eriksen almost completed his hat-trick in stoppage time with a 25-yard free-kick as Denmark saw the game out comfortably to move top of Nations League B Group Four.