June 22, (THEWILL)- In a suspenseful end to proceedings in Group B of the continental football competition in Europe three of the four sides ended up with only one win, two losses and no draws to make the determination of who qualified through to join Belgium to the next round a tricky affair.
In the end it came to be Denmark that progressed buoyed up in no small way by their remarkable Monday night 4-1 victory against Russia which pried the lock to push the Danes up and over Finland, allowing the Danes go through as group runners up.
Of the two sides, it was Russia that started better. They very nearly made that better start count when Aleksandr Golovin made a dazzling run from halfway through to the centre of the Danish defence. It took a sharp and smart low dive by Kasper Schmeichel to keep Golovin out.
It resulted in waking Denmark up and central midfielder Pierre-Emile Højbjerg was the first to send a warning to the Russians. His rasping shot only whistled past the post without much incident. If the Russians identified the threat Højbjerg posed, it did not reflect in the game.
The Danes went searching for goals with the knowledge that the more they scored the better their chances of qualifying and it was the same Tottenham Hotspur man, Højbjerg, who picked out Mikkel Damsgaard on the edge of the area in the 38th minute.
Damsgaard took a touch to place the ball to his right before the Sampdoria man unleashed an incredible curling effort that Matvei Safonov, the Russian goalkeeper, could only watch fly into his net rooted to the spot.
Denmark pushed forward for more when play resumed after the break. The pressure paid off as Spartak Moscow central midfielder Roman Zobnin’s loose pass was capitalised on for a simple tap-in by Yussuf Poulsen to double the Danish advantage before the hour mark.
But, just as the Danes were beginning to dream of the next stage, perils of an early exit threatened their joy. Aleksandr Sobolev went down under Jannik Vestergaard’s challenge in the box and French referee Clement Turpin wasted no time in awarding the penalty that Artem Dzyuba smashed into the net to cut the deficit for Russia.
Understandably, Denmark’s response was to throw everything forward in desperation. It could have backfired but instead it worked when Andreas Christensen let fly from 30 metres out, a pile driver that secured itself in the Russian goal in the 79th minute.
The excitement had barely died down for the Danish fans when Atalanta right midfielder Joakim Mæhle danced into the penalty box and fired in a fourth goal to boost their goal difference and secure them passage especially with Belgium’s 2-0 victory over Finland.
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.
