Czech Republic vs Denmark LIVE Score, EURO 2020 Quarterfinal Updates: Delaney puts Danes in front in CZE vs DEN

Welcome to Sportstar’s LIVE coverage of the EURO 2020 Quarterfinal match Czech Republic vs Denmark.

This is Santadeep Dey, bringing you all the action as it unfurls at the Baku Olympic Stadium.

LIVE COMMENTARY

SCORE: CZE 0-1 DEN

32′ Sevcik is fouled again. Delaney is the culprit on this occasion. A freekick has been awarded but Dolberg clears.

29′ Damsgaard trips Sevcik and the Czech have rightly pocketed another freekick. Sevcik himself gets behind the ball but Celustka mistimes his jump near the goal.

27′ Braithwaite drives from the right but sends the ball wide. A decent effort.

25′ Sevcik’s corner kick floats to Soucek, unchallenged at the back. The West Ham midfielder should have done better.

22′ Schmeichel charges out of his line to deny Holes, who was set up by Masopust from the right. However, the ball trickles behind for a Czech Republic corner.

19′ Barak delivers from the corner as another opportunity goes abegging wide off the shoulder of Kalas.

17′ Delaney continues to frustrate the Czech defence. It’s Larsen with a well-placed cross again but Delaney’s touch rolls past the woodwork.

15′ The Czech win a free kick from a potentially dangerous spot. Barak, standing over it, finds Soucek, who heads it to Sevcik, but the volley sails off target.

11′ Czech Republic wins a corner. Schick goes for goal but it has been dragged high and wide.

10′ Braithwaite gives away a free kick just outside the Czech area.

6′ Almost another! Larsen and Hojbjerg combine on the right before the latter sends in a cross. However, there was nobody at the other end to act on it.

5′ GOAL! The first corner of the match has been awarded to the Danes. Larsen picks Delaney, who is completely unmarked at the far post. The Borussia Dortmund midfielder responds with a regulation nod into the back of the net.

3′ Coufal swings at a loose ball from outside the area but his effort has been blocked by the Danish defence.

2′ Maehle is up on his feet and good to go.

1′ An early stoppage in play as Maehle takes a blow to his head from Soucek in a mid-air collision. The physios have been called upon.

KICKOFF! And we are underway in Baku. Denmark, in its white strip, gets the ball rolling from left to right.

9:25 PM IST: Time for the national anthems. Denmark up first.

9:24 PM IST: The teams are being led onto the pitch from the tunnel by the match officials.

TEAM NEWS AND LINEUPS

The Czech Republic has made only one change to the team, which beat the Netherlands in the Round of 16 last Sunday – Jan Boril is back after his one-match suspension and replaces Pavel Kaderabek at left-back.

Tomas Soucek is set to wear the captain’s armband today for only the third time in his career as Vladimir Darida starts on the bench.

Czech Republic: Vaclik; Coufal, Celustka, Kalas, Boril; Holes, Soucek (c); Masopust, Barak, Sevcik; Schick

Subs: Kaderabek, Brabec, Darida, Krmencik, Jankto, Mandous, Zima, Vydra, Kral, Koubek, Pekhart, Pesek

The Danes are unchanged. Kasper Dolberg retains his place. Coach Kasper Hjulmand has also chosen to go with Jens Stryger-Larsen at right wing-back with Daniel Wass among the substitutes.

Denmark: Schmeichel; Christensen, Kjaer (c), Vestergaard; Stryger, Hojbjerg, Delaney, Maehle; Braithwaite, Dolberg, Damsgaard

Subs: Andersen, Skov, Skov Olsen, Mathias Zanka Jorgensen, Norgaard, Lossl, Wass, Wind, Poulsen, Cornelius, Ronnow, Jensen

Match Officials: Referee – Bjorn Kuipers (NED); Assistant referees – Sander van Roekel (NED), Erwin Zeinstra (NED); Fourth official – Sergei Karasev (RUS); Video Assistant Referee – Pol van Boekel (NED)

WHAT THEY SAID

Tomas Holes spoke to EURO2020.com about Denmark: “I expect a more difficult game than the one against Netherlands. From what we have seen, [Denmark] have a similar style of play [to us]. They don’t lose the ball, are thorough and aggressive. They have excellent players. They do not concede goals, and in each of the last two matches have scored four. It is not an easy match awaiting us.”

Vladimir Coufal tells Euro 2020: “We’re not about world-class players or great individuals. Our strength is playing as a team. That’s our weapon, and if someone doesn’t do that, he will get called out. We’re not getting angry at each other, and I hope it will stay that way – until at least the semi-final.”

PREDICTED XI

Czech Republic: Vaclik; Coufal, Celustka, Kalas, Kaderabek; Holes, Soucek; Masopust, Barak, Sevcik; Schick

Denmark: Schmeichel; Christensen, Kjaer, Vestergaard; Wass, Hojbjerg, Delaney, Maehle; Braithwaite, Dolberg, Damsgaard

RECENT FORM

Czech Republic: W-L-D-W-W

Denmark: W-W-L-L-W

OPTA STATS

MATCH PREVIEW

From the despair of seeing a teammate suffer cardiac arrest to the European Championship quarterfinals, somehow Denmark keeps on going.

Denmark will face the Czech Republic on Saturday, exactly three weeks after midfielder Christian Eriksen collapsed on the field in the team’s opening game and had to be resuscitated with a defibrillator.

While Eriksen recovers — initially in the hospital and now at home — Denmark has improved at Euro 2020. A 4-1 win over Russia got Denmark out of the group stage after two losses. Beating Wales 4-0 in the round of 16 matched the team’s best showing since “Danish Dynamite” won the 1992 European Championship.

EURO 2020 quarters: In-form England faces Ukraine at Stadio Olimpico

“Culture-wise, there’s similarities. Values of sticking (together), one for all and all for one,” Denmark midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg said on Thursday. “There’s this pride also to be playing for your country and all these values that I don’t think have changed too much since 1992.

“But my biggest respect to the guys in ′92 because they went on to win it. We haven’t done anything yet.”

Since the “shock” of Eriksen’s sudden collapse, Hojbjerg said, Denmark has gone through huge emotional ups and downs.

“Now we’re in the quarterfinals, so it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster, a big one,” he said. “And the good thing is that we are still hungry. We’re still determined to push for more.”

More than half of the 26-man squad was not yet born when Denmark beat Germany 2-0 in the 1992 final. The only European quarterfinal appearance since then came in 2004, a 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic. Hojbjerg was eight years old back then and recalls he was “not very happy” he couldn’t watch the match because of a school trip.

READ |  EURO 2020: Denmark ready for ‘war’ against Czech Republic in quarterfinal

That tournament ended in disappointment for the Czechs, too. They lost to eventual champion Greece 1-0 in the semifinals. As Czechoslovakia, the team won the European title in 1976. As the Czech Republic, the high point was being runner-up to Germany in 1996.

Both Denmark and the Czech Republic have been at their best at EURO 2020 when playing high-intensity, physical football against opponents who wanted possession. They could end up cancelling each other out in the quarterfinals. That’s playing on Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand’s mind, so much so that he admitted he was disappointed the Czech team upset the Netherlands 2-0 in the round of 16.

“I would rather have played the Netherlands,” Hjulmand told Danish broadcaster DR on Monday. “Now we’re facing a team for the first time (in the tournament) that I think can match our own intensity.”

Anders Christiansen and Mathias Jensen during a training session with Denmark’s national football team in Elsinore.   –  AP

Danish striker Yussuf Poulsen could return after missing the Wales game with a muscle injury, when replacement Kasper Dolberg scored twice. One more goal would see Czech Republic forward Patrik Schick match Cristiano Ronaldo as tournament leader with five.

Few Danish or Czech fans will be in the Baku Olympic Stadium for the game. Only Turkey, Azerbaijan’s close ally, has had more than a couple hundred fans at games in the city so far.

“In my view it doesn’t really make sense (to play in Baku). We are a bit frustrated but we respect this decision,” Czech Republic midfielder Michal Sadilek said through an interpreter on Thursday. “We hope for any support we can get at the stadium and we are going to play so that we can have the fans at our next game.”

ALSO READ | From London to St. Petersburg, Euro 2020 raises fears of new virus spread

Plans for a Czech charter flight to Baku fell apart because not enough fans agreed to go. Denmark may have up to 1,000 supporters and offered 50 of its most loyal fans a ride on the federation’s plane.

Denmark has felt closer than most teams to its fans, who roared the team on to beat Russia in Copenhagen. In Amsterdam, too, the Danes were the local favourites in what felt like a home game against Wales.

“Every time we put on the shirt, every time we wear the badge of the Danish national team, we are playing for the country, we are having the country with us,” Hojbjerg said. “So in that way they will always be with us. Everybody will always be with us.”

– Associated Press

WHERE TO WATCH UEFA EURO 2020 LIVE IN INDIA?

Sony Pictures Sports Network (SPSN) will telecast UEFA EURO 2020 in English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.

Fans can watch the action unfold LIVE on SONY TEN 2, SONY TEN 3, SONY SIX and SONY TEN 4 channels.

The matches are also available for live streaming on SonyLIV and JioTV.