SportsDenmark Reach First Semi-Final In 29 Years, Beat Czech 2-1

Denmark Reach First Semi-Final In 29 Years, Beat Czech 2-1

July 03, (THEWILL) – The remarkable run of the Danes at the Euro 2020 continued on the quarter-finals on Saturday as they beat the Czech Republic 2-1 at the Baki Olimpiya Stadionu, in Baku Azerbaijan, to go through to their fourth ever European Championships semi-finals.

THEWILL recalls how they began with the loss of influential teammate Christian Eriksen due to his heart problem but they recovered from that initial setback and the losses in their first two matches to get this far. On Saturday, they endured an onslaught of 16 shots from the Czechs but held on to claim victory.

The Czechs may have done their best to reach the semi-finals and failed but they exit with some level of pride in their progress and will return to the Czech Republic with their heads held high whilewhile Patrik Schick, the Bayer Leverkusen striker could still finish as joint top scorer of the continental competition with five goals equal to Cristiano Ronaldo’s feat.

Glo

The Danes however will celebrate this triumph that carries them into their first European Championship semi-final since they won the competition way back in 1992, when Sweden hosted and Denmark qualified only after Yugoslavia was disqualified as a result of the breakup of the country and the ensuing warfare there.

On Saturday in Baku, they were handed a dream start when Thomas Delaney headed home Jens Stryger Larsen’s corner unchallenged from six yards out in the fifth minute. It was a straightforward, textbook goal and extremely poor man-marking on the side of Jaroslav Silhavy’s men.

Then, Kasper Dolberg’s end-of-first-half strike gave the Danes a double lead to take the game into the break on that margin. But, the Czech halved that score as they improved in the second half through Schick’s fifth goal. The Czechs applied even more pressure to find the equaliser as they rode on their second half momentum.

However, it was Kasper Hjulmand’s charges held on for a valuable victory with Schick’s effort and their late rush for a goal to push the match into extra time too little to avoid Czech’s exit at the last-eight stage of the 2021 competition.

Denmark will wait to see which of either Ukraine or England will take victory in the second quarter-finals fixture of Saturday for a semi-final showdown at Wembley on Wednesday, July 7.

About the Author

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Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.

Jude Obafemi, THEWILLhttps://thewillnews.com
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.

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