Christian Eriksen scores with first touch on emotional Denmark return against the Netherlands

Matt Verri26 March 2022

Christian Eriksen scored with his first touch on his emotional return to the Denmark side as they lost 4-2 to the Netherlands.

The midfielder last appeared in a Denmark shirt when he suffered a cardiac arrest at Euro 2020 last June, and against all the odds has since made an incredible return to football.

Eriksen signed for Brentford in January and has been playing for Thomas Frank’s side, which earned him a call-up back to the national team.

He was named on the bench against the Netherlands but was introduced at half-time and it took him less than two minutes to get back on the scoresheet with his first touch of the match.

The 30-year-old was denied a second goal by the woodwork, as Denmark fell to a 4-2 defeat in Amsterdam in the friendly match.

Speaking ahead of the match, Denmark manager Kasper Hjulmand believes Eriksen’s call-up was the natural next step of his return to the game.

He said: “It’s the next step in his career. The first step was to find out if he should play football again. He had a lot of tests and everything went well. He’s there and he’s back to the old Christian.

“The next step was to get him to a football team and to get a rhythm in his everyday life and playing matches. The next step is the national team again.”

In an interview given in January, Eriksen revealed his desire to appear at the World Cup in Qatar at the end of the year.

“My goal is to play in the World Cup in Qatar,” Eriksen said.

“I want to play. That’s been my mindset all along. It’s a goal, a dream. Whether I’ll be picked is another thing. But it’s my dream to come back.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in