Yesterday had the final matchday in Group B at EURO 2020, with Russia facing Denmark in Copenhagen, while Belgium took on Finland in St. Petersburg. While Belgium had already qualified for the knockout rounds, the other three sides could all still qualify, which added a lot of intrigue and excitement as both matches took place simultaneously. Denmark started the match well, regularly attacking down the flanks but could not find a way past a determined Russian defence, and Russia had a couple of good chances as well through Aleksandr Golovin and Roman Zobnin which they failed to take. Denmark made them pay with a fantastic goal from the 20-year-old Mikkel Damsgaard, and then doubled their lead in the second half through Yussuf Poulsen, as he capitalised on a backpass by Daler Kuzyaev to score into an empty net and spark huge celebrations at the Parken. The most dramatic few minutes of EURO 2020 were to follow – news soon came through that Belgium had scored against Finland, which meant that Denmark were now second in the group and going through to the next round. However, even as the crowd was celebrating this news, Russia were awarded a penalty for Jannik Vestergaard’s challenge on Aleksandr Sobolev. He scored, and almost simultaneously news filtered through that the Belgium goal had been disallowed, putting Denmark back in third place. This sparked an attacking frenzy from Denmark, who restored their two-goal lead with a superb strike from Andreas Christensen, with Joachim Maehle adding a brilliant fourth goal as well. This, combined with Belgium’s 2-0 win over Finland, meant that the Danes made it through in second place from Group B, and they will face Wales in the round of 16, while Russia exit EURO 2020. Check out our analytics video from this match which has all the key statistics and visualisations.
