[ad_1]
| Dates: June 11 – July 11. Venues: Amsterdam, Baku, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Glasgow, London, Munich, Rome, Seville, St. Petersburg. Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC Radio 5 Live, iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app. Click here for more information |
When Christian Eriksen collapsed on the field on Saturday, the football part of Euro 2020 suddenly seemed insignificant.
But after the news that the Danish midfielder was awake and stable in the hospital, All of Sunday’s matches went on schedule, and the weekend, which is always remembered for what happened in Copenhagen, ended with a classic match in Amsterdam.
Maybe the Netherlands exciting 3-2 win over Ukraine was exactly what the tournament needed; something to celebrate and enjoy after a painful 36 hours of European football.
It was also appropriate for the Dutch victory to be played at Johan Cruyff Arena, the stadium where Eriksen made his name playing more than 100 times on the Ajax team between 2010 and 2013, before moving to Tottenham Hotspur.
The Group C match was reminiscent of all that is great about football – and there was a lot of optimism about the future outlook for the Netherlands in the coming weeks in the full-time whistle.
‘I didn’t want to talk about football’
Dutch coach Frank de Boer coached Eriksen in Ajax earlier in his midfielder career and said he experienced a “roller coaster of emotions” after hearing about the player’s collapse.
Speaking after the party’s dramatic victory over Ukraine, De Boer added: “I have worked with Christian for five years and there are players on my team who are still playing with him or who had a good bond with him when he played in Ajax.
“It was a roller coaster night [on Saturday]. We had planned a tactical meeting, but we had to schedule it this morning because I didn’t want to talk about football. “
During the game, defender Daley Blind was in tears when he was replaced in the second half.
Blind starred on the same Ajax team as Eriks, and in December 2019 he had his own heart surgery while diagnosed myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle.
“Daley was quite emotional because he had some problems with his heart,” De Boer added.
“Even now, Christian is one of his best friends, and it’s normal that there were a lot of emotions, so it really wasn’t easy for us.”
Nine images in 10 minutes – a tone set for a classic
There was a festive atmosphere in the Amsterdam arena one of the biggest nights of Eriksen’s career in 2019 – when Wout Weghorst scored 2-0 in the 58th minute shortly after Georginio Wijnaldum’s opening goal.
The Netherlands were on their way to three points in the first match back to the big tournament stage for seven years.
But the 16,000 crowd fell silent as Ukraine struck twice in four minutes, including Andriy Yarmolenko’s screamer, before Denzel Dumfries offered a late turn with a well-placed title.
On the extra night, all five goals were scored in the second half – for the first time in the European Championships after the match has been a goal at halftime.
Nine shots were taken at the start of the 10 minutes of the match – the most recorded in that phase of the game since 1980 (the earliest point Opta has this information).
The victory was achieved without Captain Virgil van Dijk, who continues to recover a severe knee ligament injury which will prevent him from making the most of Liverpool for the 2020-21 season.
“The team’s abilities are amazing. That’s where Holland is built,” former Dutch defender Mario Melchiot told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“But you have to remember in tournaments that you need passion and a little luck to get things done.”
Former Netherlands and Manchester City midfielder Nigel de Jong said he was able to visualize a negative reaction to De Boer when Roman Yaremchuk scored 2-2.
“I already saw the headlines,” he added. “It was an emotional roller coaster. I have no sound.”
Some supporters were so concerned that De Boer had handed out a traditional Dutch line-up that they flew behind a plane ticket plane during a team exercise on Saturday: “Frank, only 4-3-3”.
“I’m relieved,” admitted Wijnaldum, who has joined St-Germain in Paris after leaving Liverpool.
The Dutch skipper said there is something to learn if the team wants to go deep into the tournament.
“We’ll let them get back in the game, and that needs to be improved,” he added.
De Boer said his players could be proud of their performance.
“We saw a good Dutch team that was compact, dominating and creating opportunities,” he added. “That’s what we want to see. But those two goals we don’t want to see anymore were too easy.”
Ukrainian coach Andriy Shevchenko could not hide his disappointment after seeing his team throw a point, but he added: “The loss of such games is always shocking in the end, but it is not a tragedy.”
[ad_2]
picture credit