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Kasper Schmeichel says UEFA rushed Denmark-Finland resumption

Kasper Schmeichel has criticised UEFA for rushing the re-start of Saturday's Euro 2020 meeting of...



Kasper Schmeichel says UEFA ru...
Soccer

Kasper Schmeichel says UEFA rushed Denmark-Finland resumption

Kasper Schmeichel has criticised UEFA for rushing the re-start of Saturday's Euro 2020 meeting of Denmark and Finland. 

The Group B game was halted four-minutes before half-time in Copenhagen after Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch.

UEFA would release a statement saying, "Following the request made by players of both teams, UEFA has agreed to restart the match between Denmark and Finland tonight at 20:30 CET."

The match did indeed resume at 7.30pm, Irish time, and Finland would go on to win it 1-0.

However, contrary to UEFA's statement, Denmark head coach Kasper Hjulmand later revealed, "We had two options to play the game [today] or tomorrow at 12pm and everyone agreed to play today.

"You can't play a game with such feelings. We tried to win. It was incredible they managed to go out and try to play the second half."

On Monday, Schmeichel said, "A decision about the game should probably not have been made in the heat of the moment.

"It would probably have been a wise decision to maybe change the rules or the regulations in extraordinary circumstances and maybe take a breath and reconvene the day after and make a decision on how to go forward."

Eriksen's agent Martin Schoots told Gazzetta dello Sport, "We spoke this morning [Sunday]. He was making jokes, he was in a good mood, I thought he was well."

"We all want to understand what happened to him, and he does too: the doctors are making some in-depth tests, but we'll need some time."

Meanwhile, Schmeichel admits it's going to be tough for the Danish squad to adequately gather themselves before Thursday's visit of Belgium to the Parken Stadium.

"There's a lot of people that react in very different ways," the Leicester goalkeeper said, "And we need to try and find a way to get back to normality.

"But I think the real important thing for us is that we know Christian's OK.

"From there on, we talked a lot about the spirit that we have in the team, and to be able to fight the way that we've done."

Denmark v Finland resumption after Eriksen collapse | ‘UEFA could have given it more time’

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