Euro 2020 in 2021. From the minute UEFA announced the European Cup would be played as a "continental" Euro, it was met with widespread anguish by fans who knew the Euros they've always come to expect would not be replicated in 2020. And that was before any of us know what Covid-19 was.
After Covid-19 shut the world down, Euro 2020 was moved to 2021 in hopes the world would be back like it was just two years prior. But that wasn't the case. With Covid-19 still spreading all over the world, half filled stadiums, little to no buzz in host cities, fans either barred from traveling due to covid restrictions or just frankly refusing to do so, made Euro 2021 most likely the worst European Cup to date. And that was before Denmark took on Finland in Group B. The match the world thought it lost Christian Eriksen.
It's the day football observers will never forget. I surely won't.
I watched Wales draw Switzerland earlier on that Saturday morning. Knowing very well, the match of the day was in the late afternoon Belgium vs Russia. As any fanatic, i told myself to get some stuff done during the early game, so i could just sit and watch the next two without interruption. With Wales and Switzerland playing to a draw, i thought Denmark, one of the hosts of the tournament, would easily beat Finland. With the score 0-0 and nearing half-time, i began to only keep one eye on the score while doing some other stuff that needed to be done. Then it happened.
Eriksen collapsed receiving a throw in. Danish players circling around him to shield the star player from cameras as medical staff begin to perform CPR. In my entire life of watching football, i have never witnessed a scene such as this. Panic on players faces are some of the images people who watched that day will never forget. Eriksen was carried out from the pitch by a stretcher with white tarps protecting him of some privacy in a moment when the world thought Eriksen was not going to make it. The match suspended at the 43rd minute.
Friends texting on whats app wondering what happened. The usual go-to in situations like this is twitter, but with the volume of users trying to find any latest information on Eriksen or videos of what happened by those who did not watch live, the web site twitter got overloaded and nobody was able to get on for the next several hours. The world needed to know what has happened and news spread like wild fire.
The rest of the day was spend waiting on any news that may come out on Eriksen from the doctors at the hospital. Meanwhile, Denmark vs Finland finally resumed, with Finland winning 1-0, and Belgium went on to beat Russia 3-0, but none of the results mattered anymore. News finally came out that Eriksen was doing better and even in good spirits, and that was the only result the world was hoping for.
What was expected to be the worst Euros of all time- became that but much worse.
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