Perhaps the most striking aspect of Denmark’s game against Slovenia on Sunday was how familiar it all felt. A side highly reliant on one outstanding creator taking the lead in a first half they controlled and then unexpectedly losing their way against physical opponents in the second half, leading to a great gnashing of teeth about what had gone wrong and why things weren’t as good as they had been at the last Euros. But for the fact that Slovenia scored an equaliser and Serbia didn’t, Denmark’s start was very similar to England’s.
To outsiders, the big story from the game was Christian Eriksen, who was brilliant in the first half, dropping deep, dictating the play and scoring the opening goal. Given he had a cardiac arrest in his previous game at the Euros, three years ago, the symbolism of return and recovery seemed obvious.
