Who thought the match in Copenhagen for the Red Devils was a walk in the park would be, was completely wrong. After 45 minutes of football, our boys were even in debt 1-0. Three reasons for the delay at half time.
1. The Devils Were Too Sweet
Our football chief wrote it in the newspaper today. “We should show compassion for the Danes, but not pity.” Yet in the first half we couldn’t shake the impression that the Red Devils were a little too nice for their opponent after the drama with Christian Eriksen last Saturday. We hadn’t seen our boys like this in a long time. The Danes, on the other hand, went full into battle. “We want to play against the Belgians for Christian”, Martin Braithwaite had said before the match against the Red Devils. “People will see something special on Thursday night.” The Barcelona striker had not lied.
2. Choosing Denayer turned out to be wrong verkeerd
One of the positions that were still questionable before the game against Denmark was the central position in the defence. Against Russia, Dedryck Boyata impressed in that position by keeping Artem Dzyuba out of the game. But on Thursday evening, Roberto Martinez finally opted for the slightly more agile Jason Denayer, as he had also done well in the last confrontation with the Danes, in the opinion of the national coach. However, after two minutes, that choice turned out to be completely wrong. The Devils suffered a dangerous loss of ball after an abominable pass from Denayer. Yussuf Poulsen accepted the present in thanks.
3. The Anti-Lukaku Plan Worked
In the absence of Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku is more than ever the man to do it for the Red Devils. The Danes knew this too, so Kasper Hjulmand had devised a genuine anti-Lukaku plan. For this he even got the help of Christian Eriksen, who gave the national coach from his hospital bed tips to stop Lukaku, his teammate at Inter. “I did indeed talk to Christian about Romelu Lukaku,” Hjulmand said. “What we have to avoid is that he gets the ball. Because once he has the ball, there is little that can be done about it.” That plan worked Thursday night. Lukaku barely appeared in the game before half-time and did not touch the ball much. Eighteen ball contacts in the first half, the least of all Red Devils.
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