The last time Christian Eriksen played a game in this tournament he almost died. Three years on this walking miracle gave Denmark something to smile about on their runway to England, if not the win that would have provided some useful speed.
Instead, they were limited to a draw by a Slovenian team that is found between Paraguay and Iraq in FIFA’s rankings and spent the first half hopelessly lost to the occasion.
That Denmark took the lead and then blew it will serve as a source of some optimism to Gareth Southgate ahead of Thursday’s engagement in Group C. He will have seen a side of familiar names who move the ball well, have no shortage of pace, but failed quite spectacularly in putting this tie to sleep.
If there was an uplift for Denmark on a disappointing day then indisputably it came from Eriksen, who scored a quite lovely goal after 17 minutes and also rammed words down a few throats.
It was in March when Thomas Gravesen, once of Real Madrid and now a gob for rent, said: ‘Christian Eriksen doesn’t play football anymore – he sits on the bench and watches football.’
Christian Eriksen (pictured) returned to play for Denmark at the Euros 1,100 days after he collapsed on the pitch at Euro 2020
The Manchester United star marked the game with a goal, poking in with his left foot in the 17th minute to give his side the lead in the first half
Erik Janza (top) would cancel out Eriksen’s goal with a sensational second-half strike from outside the penalty area
Given Eriksen’s limited activity at Manchester United, it wasn’t entirely without merit. But what a wonderful way to slap that one down. And what a magnificently poignant time to do it, coming exactly 1,100 days after he went into cardiac arrest on that pitch in Copenhagen during Denmark’s opener in 2021.
But that was their sole highlight. For the next hour, Slovenia didn’t land so much as a shot on goal, but somehow Denmark lost their legs and then their grip, with the leveller from Erik Janza preceding chances for the result to get even worse. England might not enjoy similar complicity in Frankfurt, but neither will they lose much sleep when they watch this back.
At this point, a word on Slovenia. While ranked 57th in FIFA’s standings, they are not too shabby. In fact, they hadn’t lost in five games this year, which mostly came against weaker rungs on the ladder but did include a 2-0 win over a Portugal side featuring Cristiano Ronaldo.
Here, they kept to a rigid 4-4-2, played long and for most of the game they no success with any of it. Across the first half, the closest they came, 16 minutes in, was a swivel and shot by Benjamin Sesko that whizzed past Kasper Schmeichel from 20 yards but tracked a fraction wide.
Such has been Sesko’s form at RB Leipzig, the 21-year-old drew interest from Arsenal and Chelsea before signing a new deal in Germany, but for long chunks in Stuttgart he was out of reach. All supply lines in his direction were being suffocating by Morten Hjulmand and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in a midfield battle that couldn’t have been more one sided.
It was on such a platform of control that Denmark went ahead. A quick throw was at the root of the move, but the class came from the heel flick of Jonas Wind, before Eriksen took the ball on his chest and lashed the finish on the half-volley.
It was a beautiful strike, with Janza (pictured) swiping his left foot through the ball from around 20-yards out
Arsenal target Benjamin Sesko (right) proved a dangerous asset for Slovenia but couldn’t gte on the score sheet
Denmark threatened Slovenia on several occasions, but Slovenia goalkeeper Jan Oblak (first right) was on hand to cut out their attacks
Kasper Schmeichel (green shirt) equally provided a final line of defence for Denmark
A great moment for him and a big one for Denmark in the pursuit of tournament momentum. Their concern, and England’s observation, will be their repeated failures to build on the advantage – for all the speed and fizz of their moves, mostly up the left and via the one-touch exchanges between of Viktor Kristiansen and Hjulmand, their only strike on target for the half was the one they scored.
The pattern continued after the break, with Denmark fading abruptly and turning this into a slog. Predictably, that meant diminishing returns from the 32-year-old legs of Eriksen, and there was also an opportunity for Hojlund after Kristiansen whipped a ball in front of goal and the United striker was expertly smothered at contact by Jan Oblak.
That left the win in doubt and the risk was realised in Slovenia’s first moment of concerted pressure. An alarm sounded when Sesko flushed a drive against the post and Janza immediately following it with the equaliser. His strike from the edge of the area was no less crisp but it was helped by a deflection via Hjulmand’s backside.
Thereafter Schmeichel made his first save from Andraz Sporar to stop a deflating result from becoming a real drama.
