Eriksen penalty decisive - and Maguire sees red
ENGLAND fell to a first home defeat in two years as out-ofsorts Harry Maguire’s sending off was compounded by Denmark centurion Christian Eriksen scoring a controversially-awarded penalty.
Three days on from impressively coming back to beat Belgium to go top of their Nations League group, Gareth Southgate’s side stumbled to a first defeat on home soil since September 2018.
Eriksen’s penalty shortly after Maguire received two bookings in 31 wretched minutes were the key moments at an empty Wembley, where Denmark held on for a 1-0 win against a visibly-frustrated England.
It was a galling end to October’s triple-header, with the post-match focus sure to be on Maguire after a nightmare performance continued a testing period for the defender on and off the field.
The 27-year-old has started the campaign poorly after a truncated pre-season overshadowed by a welldocumented Greek court case, with the Manchester United captain sent off for two yellow cards.
Maguire’s fifth-minute challenge on Yussuf Poulsen was bad but his lunge on Kasper Dolberg was worse, with the steepness of England’s uphill battle soon increasing as Eriksen scored from the spot. Confusion reigned at the decision to award the spot-kick that the former Tottenham playmaker lashed home, with England failing with their attempts to level.
Kasper Schmeichel superbly denied Mason Mount and Conor Coady saw a last-gasp header cleared off the line as the Three Lions failed to eke out a leveller on a night when Southgate’s anger was palpable.
Referee Jesus Gil Manzano even warned the England boss for one outburst and Reece James - so impressive on his full debut - appeared to be sent off after fulltime.
In Group B4 Wales beat Bulgaria 1-0 in their Nations League match in
Sofia. Wales’ winner came in the 85th minute, from Jonny Williams - scoring his first goal for Wales who top their group ahead of Finland.
Also in B4, Fredrik Jensen returned to haunt the Republic of Ireland as he fired Finland to victory in Helsinki. The striker, who scored the only goal in a 1-0 win in Dublin last month, repeated it with a 66thminute strike following an error by Irish keeper Darren Randolph.
In Group B2, Ryan Frazers’ goal was enough for Scotland to beat the Czech Republic 1-0 at Hampden Park. Scotland lead the visitors by four points in the group. It is the first time in 32 years they have gone eight games without defeat.
In group B1, Northern Ireland lost 1-0 to Norway in Oslo.