It was a little late and a little lucky too, but the European champions did eventually get the goal that completed their homecoming. Kasper Schmeichel had resisted for 79 minutes but then Martín Zubimendi, who Liverpool couldn’t convince and whose coach calls the second best midfielder in the world after the man he came in to replace, hit a volley that squirmed beyond the Denmark keeper and into the net. Just when it seemed that they wouldn’t get a goal to go with the Henri Delaunay trophy, 29,870 people erupted in Murcia, Spain’s party ending rather well after all.
Twenty-four shots it had taken, a deflection too. It also took a long VAR check to confirm it, with Denmark’s caretaker coach, Lars Knudsen, saying that the Joselu challenge which saw the ball fall to Zubimendi “didn’t look like shoulder to shoulder to me”. And yet the selección deserved the win that took them top of the group. Schmeichel had made five saves until then, two of them one-on-ones with Álvaro Morata, but ultimately carried some of the responsibility for defeat.
