Saturday was a hard day for Denmark, Christian Eriksen and his family. The player collapsed in the Danes’ opening Euro 2020 fixture, suffering from cardiac arrest.
Saturday we all were about to enjoy a great day of football as the tournament kicked off in a free-flowing manner following an amazing opening day match where Italy stamped their authority on the tournament in a 3-0 win over Turkey on Friday night past.
We were expecting more of the same; sadly the turn of events in one of Saturday’s encounters was life-threatening, almost stopping the match completely from taking place.
Extremely excited for what was Finland’s first-ever Euros kickoff almost turned out to be Eriksen’s last football game.
What actually ran the headlines on the day:
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"Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest when he collapsed in Denmark’s Euro 2020 match against Finland, said Danish team doctor Morten Boesen.Earlier, officials said the midfielder was stable in hospital and had sent his greetings to his national team-mates.Eriksen collapsed shortly before half-time in Denmark’s opening Euro 2020 game against Finland on Saturday.“He was gone. We did cardiac resuscitation, it was a cardiac arrest,” said Boesen.“How close were we to losing him? I don’t know, but we got him back after one defib [defibrillation] so that’s quite fast."
Denmark lost more than just three points but it could have been far worse. They lost their midfield talisman, the man that pulls the strings and dictates the pace from the middle of the park.
The best news to come from this all, he is in a stable condition and his road to recovery is well on course. The Danish camp are too receiving the treatment they need, as the experience was too much to bear.
Saturday, after going 1-0 down to Finland and enduring the loss of Eriksen, you could count on them losing the result and being unable to overturn it in their favour. Mentally they were beaten to the ground by the sad event, there was no way they could come back after it happened.
Team doctor Morten Boesen on the condition of the team:
"His condition is stable and he continues to be hospitalised for further examination.This morning we have spoken to Christian, who has sent his greetings to his team-mates.The team and staff of the national team has received crisis assistance and will continue to be there for each other after yesterday’s incident.We would like to thank everyone for their heartfelt greetings. (Via: BBC Sport)"
Denmark will struggle to come back stronger
If it wasn’t hard enough already that they are without an important figure such as Christian Eriksen, their next Euro 2020 clash is against Group B leaders, Belgium, Thursday, 17 June.
The Red Devils come off the back of an emphatic victory over Russia in their opening match – and they are big favourites to go all the way. Lukaku and company looked almost unplayable on the day and we expect more of the same from them.
The perfect encounter would have been a matchup against Russia, who was on the receiving end of Belgium’s wrath. The Russians go up against the Finns on Wednesday, 16 June.
A draw would count massively in Denmark’s favour but with Russia taking a knock, they will leave everything on the pitch against newbies, Finland.