Fast-starting Danes undone by class of De Bruyne
The only thing I’m disappointed by is the result. Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand
When Denmark’s players returned to their dressing room at the Parken Stadium, they switched on their phones to find a message from Christian Eriksen.
“You were really awesome,” Denmark’s stricken playmaker told his teammates on the squad’s WhatsApp group, and there was no hint of hyperbole about the text.
With Eriksen watching on television from his hospital bed, just a stone’s throw from the same ground at which he had suffered a cardiac arrest five days earlier, Denmark produced a performance of which their comrade and the whole country could be proud.
The Danes were unable to provide the result they so desperately craved, although Eriksen — a purveyor of some of football’s finer arts — will have been one of the first to appreciate the majesty of Kevin De Bruyne, without whom Belgium would probably not have been toasting a fine comeback.
The second fastest goal in European Championship history raised hopes of a memorable Danish victory on an emotionally-charged occasion embodied by play being halted in the 10th minute so players and staff from both sides and the 23,395 supporters in the stadium could applaud Eriksen, who had almost lost his life after his collapse last weekend against Finland.
Belgium could not live with what their coach Roberto Martinez described as Denmark’s “waves of emotional football” in the first half.
Yussuf Poulsen’s goal after just 99 seconds stunned Belgium but the game turned once De Bruyne was summoned from the bench at halftime to wrest back control.
The Manchester City midfielder set up the equaliser for Thorgan Hazard with a piece of pure theatre before claiming the winner with a fine strike with 20 minutes left.
In doing so, Belgium became the second team to qualify for the last 16 but, while few sides possess their attacking arsenal, Martinez’s hopes of winning the tournament could yet be undermined by a slow, ageing defence that never looked comfortable against Denmark’s hard press or movement.
As for Denmark, they have already enjoyed the biggest victory they could hope for with Eriksen recovering in hospital but they are not out of the tournament yet. They will need to beat Russia on Tuesday to stand any chance of continuing.
“As I told the players in the locker room, the only thing I’m disappointed by is the result,” Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand said. “I didn’t expect too much from this game but I can’t describe the pride I feel about this squad, and the quality they showed five days after almost losing one of their best friends to get up and play like this is just amazing.”
Eriksen, it was revealed yesterday, is to receive an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, a small electronic device, a type of pacemaker, which can prevent fatal cardiac arrests by discharging a jolt to restore a regular heart rhythm.
“All of Denmark is with you, Christian”, read a banner in the crowd and the players were clearly fuelled by that emotion.
In Amsterdam, Memphis Depay and Denzel Dumfries scored a goal in each half as the Netherlands comfortably beat Austria 2-0 to advance to the round of 16.
The Netherlands are playing at a major international football tournament for the first time in seven years and qualified for the knockout stage with a game to spare.
In Bucharest, Andriy Yarmolenko and Roman Yaremchuk both scored to give Ukraine a 2-1 victory over North Macedonia. The same two players also scored in the team’s opening match at Euro 2020 on Monday, but that ended up a 3-2 loss to the Dutch.