Euro Cortado #3: Hans Christian Eriksen
Three things we learnt on day three at UEFA Euro 2024, as England underwhelm, Netherlands grind and the Danes write a new fairy tale
Day three at the 2024 UEFA European Championship left all six sides hoping they have more to come in this tournament.
England and the Netherlands both secured wins without impressing, Denmark and Slovenia’s draw left both hoping that won’t be as good as it gets, while Serbia and Poland will need to bounce back after defeat, albeit expected defeats.
Grab yourself your mid-morning coffee and let’s see what we learnt after Sunday’s Euro matches, with an extra sprinkling of Christian Eriksen-shaped magic thrown in for good measure. It’s Euro Cortado time!
Phil Foden’s not firing
I believed England vs Serbia would be one of the highest scoring matches of the group stage, so perhaps it was my curse, but how many times have we seen that performance from England to start a tournament? So much promise and build-up against a middle-ranking nation only for it to turn into a drab affair in which they struggle to seal the points. Iran in 2022 was the exception that proved the rule, following Croatia, Tunisia and Russia in recent editions. They can always be relied on to bring the average goals per game down to more manageable levels.
After an early goal, England rarely looked like scoring again, as Serbia had the better of the second half in which England could count themselves fortunate that Serbia’s final ball and composure were lacking.
The English media were singing the praises of Bellingham, the scorer of the goal - which needed a wicked deflection from Bukayo Saka’s cross to find him in the first place - though he did little else of note. But at least I didn’t forget he was on the pitch during the second half, like Phil Foden, probably second only to the Real Madrid man in terms of English hype this summer. “He’ll be playing the Germans off the park” goes the latest inclusion to the fans’ repertoire, which will be difficult to do from the substitutes’ bench should England play the host nation, as that is the only place he’s heading for after that run-out. He could have been the victim of the Trent Alexander-Arnold-in-midfield experiment, but a player who is meant to light up the tournament should have not problem adapting to unfamiliar systems.
It’s a Wout - Big Man Summer is here
Everything comes back into fashion. Twelve years on from Spain lining up on a Euros opening weekend without a striker, the opening weekend of Euro 2024 has seen the “big man up top” take centre stage for the first time since the terror that was Jan Koller.
Niclas Füllkrug notching for Germany over Scotland, Martin Ádám becoming a meme for Hungary, and now Wout Weghorst scoring the winner for the Netherlands against Poland in a 2-1 win - the takeover is complete!
It will be concerning for Ronald Koeman, however, that he had to turn to Weghorst in the first place, as Memphis Depay and Cody Gakpo were wasteful in what should have been a routine win. Gakpo did grab the equaliser, but only after a deflection took the ball out of the ever-impressive Wojciech Szczęsny’s reach.
It is a similar situation for the Dutch as it is for England after the first 90 minutes; three points are on the board, but they will need to sharpen up if they want to contest the trophy.
Christian Eriksen - that’s the subheading
A story worthy of Hollywood. In fact, scratch that, Christian Eriksen is far too good for Hollywood, and not even Hans Christian Andersen could have written this Danish fairy tale A truly joyous moment in Stuttgart yesterday as three years on from a cardiac arrest on the pitch in Denmark’s opening Euro 2020 encounter, Eriksen scores a superb goal to give the Danes the lead over Slovenia, and not even the most ardent Slovenian fan could begrudge him such a heart-warming moment.
That should be the whole story, but I would like to touch on Slovenia, who I tipped to win this one. As we know, this is Big Man Summer, and though it is unfair to put the sought-after Benjamin Šeško in that category, I thought he and goalkeeper Jan Oblak would be enough to spur Matjaž Kek’s men on to victory.
Oblak did his job and I must add that Denmark were better than I was expecting, but Šeško was largely kept quiet by the Danish defence who also were only breached thanks to a big deflection. The Arsenal target did show his potential with efforts from distance, but if he cannot make himself more of a nuisance against Serbia or England, then Slovenia’s days in these Euros are numbered.
Anthony Tomas is a football writer and commentator, who writes for Flashscore and World Soccer Magazine