After the difficult opening victory against Serbia, the English national team has been heavily criticized for its largely uninspiring performance in England. Although the players announced an improvement in their performance, the offensive game against Denmark again seemed lacking in spirit. At least the team had an excuse for the poor 1:1 (1:1) result: the condition of the pitch. In the Frankfurt stadium on Thursday, it looked as patchy as the attacks of coach Gareth Southgate’s team.
The draw means that the Three Lions will most likely qualify for the round of 16. However, the English missed out on winning the group as they had previously targeted – as they did in the two previous tournaments, when they also failed to get past a draw in the second game. First place is probably necessary in order to avoid the ever-feared arch-rivals Germany until the end of the tournament.
“We are top of our group. We conceded a goal from distance. We are top of the table, so we are focused on the last group game. Let’s count this as a point, a well-deserved point,” said defender Kyle Walker. But at home, the initial reactions were much less positive. “What a terrible performance,” complained the Daily Mirror“tame lions” that Sun.
In an open match, the frenetically cheered Danes were even closer to success in the final phase than the English. Several long-range shots narrowly missed the target. This meant that they failed to avenge their European Championship semi-final defeat against England three years ago.
England had to endure the first moment of shock in the ninth minute when right-back Walker suddenly fell to the ground, holding his ankle. However, the Manchester City captain quickly gave the all-clear: he did not want to be substituted, just his shoes. Like many other players, he had difficulty finding his footing and slipped a lot. Numerous shreds flew out of the grass, which ended up looking like an English chicken farm. The DFB team had already complained massively about the condition of the surface in March.
The encounter was like a reunion of old acquaintances. More than half of the Danish starting eleven have made an appearance in the Premier League during their careers, most notably Christian Eriksen of Manchester United. The playmaker spent most of his professional career in England. How fitting that the 32-year-old played his 132nd international match against the Three Lions and caught up with Denmark’s previous record international player Simon Kjaer. In his anniversary match, however, Eriksen hardly caused the English any problems as a left winger.
Harry Kane scores, sets up the opposing goal – and is substituted
This was also due to Walker’s quick recovery. After changing his equipment, he showed one of his feared high-speed attacks. He rushed up to the right behind the inattentive opponent Victor Kristiansen, stole the ball from him and set up Harry Kane’s lead in the eighteenth minute with a deflected cross.
The early lead was a copy of England’s opening victory. However, the Danes did not want to take part in a repeat of the Serbia match. From then on, they dominated proceedings against the English, who were once again becoming too passive, but they also scored. After half an hour, Morten Hjulmand spectacularly blasted the ball into the bottom corner of the goal from 28 meters. The Danes thus cracked the English defense, which had previously seemed as insurmountable as the bank vaults in Frankfurt. The goal was preceded by a bad pass from Kane.
For the first time, both sets of fans had already cheered an hour before the start of the game, when the live equaliser between Serbia and Slovenia was shown on the video cube in the stadium. The draw in the parallel match secured the Danes a play-off for progress on the last match day – and set the course for England in this tournament.
The Three Lions really only had to get going themselves, but they struggled to get going in the second half. Despite a header from Bukayo Saka hitting the side netting and a shot from Phil Foden hitting the post, the English team were barely able to exert any pressure. This was symbolised by striker Kane, who, apart from his goal, rarely managed to assert himself. He was substituted early.