Finland beat Denmark at Euro 2020 after Christian Eriksen collapses

Finland have earned their first ever tournament win by beating Denmark 1-0 in their Euro 2020 opener.

The day itself will forever be remembered for the distressing scenes of Christian Eriksen collapsing on the pitch and needing to be revived by paramedics and the memorable image of the Denmark team forming a ring around their teammate as he received treatment to allow him some privacy from the television broadcaster.

Eriksen collapsed in the 40th minute when he was preparing to receive a throw-in but the actions of Denmark captain Simon Kjaer, who reportedly cleared his airwaves immediately, and the healthcare staff on duty ensured that the player’s life was saved.

After it was confirmed that Eriksen was awake and stable in hospital, the players of both teams decided to complete the match.

The result of the match itself really did not matter in the end but, for the record, it was Finland who prevailed despite only having one shot to Denmark’s 22.

That shot ended up in the back of the net though when Jere Uronen’s cross picked out Joel Pohjanpalo to head in from six yards.

Denmark pushed for an equaliser and won a penalty 16 minutes from time. Usually Eriksen would have been the man to take the spot-kick, but Tottenham’s Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg deputised and struck the ball timidly to the left of Lukas Hradecky who easily stopped the ball.

Andreas Olsen had a chance blocked late on and Jannik Vestergaard headed into the arms of Hradecky as time ran out on Denmark.

“File:4-adidas-euro-2020-ball-min.jpg” by Ik ben groot is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0