Christian Eriksen scored a stunning late goal to give Denmark a 2-1 win over Sweden in a lively pre-Euro 2024 friendly at a packed Parken stadium on Wednesday. This made Eriksen Denmark’s most creative player before the tournament in Germany.
A little over a minute later, the first corner kick caught Sweden’s defense off guard, allowing the home team to break the deadlock. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg scored an easy goal after Eriksen set him up.
The red-clad supporters believed that to be the beginning of a major onslaught, but Alexander Isak of Sweden promptly responded. Seven minutes later, he took Jens Cajuste’s blocked shot and hammered it past Frederik Ronnow in the Danish goal.
The 32-year-old Eriksen suffered a heart attack on the same field as Denmark’s opening Euro 2020 match against Finland. He was in control the entire game, and the Danes earned a well-earned victory in the 86th minute with a curling, dipping goal.
Before the game, Sweden’s Danish coach, Jon Dahl Tomasson, was inducted into the Danish Football Hall of Fame. His team did a good job of defending, but they had trouble scoring because the Danish defenders often blocked Isak and Dejan Kulusevski.
Kasper Hjulmand, the coach of Denmark, praised Tomasson for his work so far with Sweden. Under Janne Andersson’s leadership, Sweden failed to qualify for the Euros, which made room for Hjulmand to take over.
“The man-to-man game they play is very rough.” “I think we turned the ball over too many times in the first half, which gave them chances they should not have had,” Hjulmand told TV2.
“We should have scored a little more … we must look at the opportunities Sweden got, because we must not give them chances,” he said.
Even though Eriksen had been criticised for a string of bad set pieces in qualifying, he was almost happy for setting up the first goal than for scoring the game-winner.
“It was nice, and it was good that we scored from a dead ball, I think it created a bit of calm in our team,” he told TV2.
Hojlund also had a good match with 35 Touches but had 3 Chances created, 2 shots, 3 duels won
Meanwhile, Lindelof is the best defender in Sweden with 96% Accurate passes (26/27), 4 Clearances, 3 Headed clearance, 3 Interceptions, 3 Recoveries, 2 Duels won
Denmark’s last practice before Euro 2024 is this Saturday at home against Norway. Then they go to Germany to play in Group C against Slovenia, England, and Serbia.
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