Wales exited Euro 2020 at the last-16 stage as Denmark continued their emotional quest for glory with an emphatic 4-0 victory at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena.
The Danes, rocked by Christian Eriksen’s cardiac arrest in Copenhagen only a fortnight ago, set up a quarter-final tie against either the Netherlands or the Czech Republic thanks to Kasper Dolberg’s double and late strikes from Joakim Maehle and Martin Braithwaite.
Dolberg, starting in place of the injured Yussuf Poulsen, struck the opener with an outstanding, curling finish from outside the box midway through the first half, then pounced on a Neco Williams error to double Denmark’s lead shortly after half-time.
Maehle hit the third in the penultimate minute of normal time when he collected a Mathias Jensen cross, cut inside his man and fired home from eight yards out, before Braithwaite added a fourth, after Harry Wilson had been sent off for Wales, which was awarded by VAR having initially been ruled out for offside.
Denmark have won each of their last four competitive meetings with Wales in a run stretching back to June 1999, with today’s clash the first meeting between the sides in a major tournament.
Wales have lost consecutive major tournament matches for the first time in their history (World Cup/Euros).
Wales are the first team to receive two red cards in a single edition of the European Championship since Russia and Switzerland in 2004.
Denmark have scored more goals from outside the box than any other side at EURO 2020 (3), while since 1980 only France (5 in 1984) and Belgium (4 in 2016) have scored more from distance in a single edition of the competition.
Denmark have registered consecutive wins within a single major tournament (World Cup/Euros) for the first time since the 1986 World Cup.
Wales have travelled 5,350 miles in this competition compared to Denmark’s 386. Add on top of that the Covid restrictions that played heavily in Denmark’s favour and that does start to weigh heavily on those weary Welsh legs.
