Leadership during crisis: How a near-death experience united a team, rallied a nation and brought cheer at Euro 2020

Anyone who is remotely familiar with sports in India knows that Football is not the national sport of India. Apart from the residents of the states of Kerala and West Bengal, and a few pockets in the major cities, Indians are not particularly fond of football. The sport does not excite us as much as Cricket, or any India-Pakistan match in any sport does.

My last serious interaction with football was the 2014 World Cup, when I watched the deserving young German team lift the trophy in the finals, after trashing Brazil 7-1 in a one-sided encounter in the semi-finals. I remember the minor controversy surrounding the “frenchness” of the players who won France the World Cup in 2018 (with this thoughtful ‘Between the Scenes’ from Trevor Noah). I was familiar with some of the big names in the world of football – Ronaldo (the Portuguese one), Neymar, Messi, Lewandowski, Salah, Suarez, Neuer and most names from the German Football Team.

So when one of my alumni invited me to play Euro 2020 on the fantasy league TruFan, I thought – why not! After all, I have been playing IPL for the last 2 years on the same platform, so why not flex my mind muscles in a sport I was not that familiar with and see where I ended up! I started reading about the different teams, the team combinations and the favourites. France, England, Belgium and Portugal were heavy favourites to win the tournament, followed by Germany, Spain and Italy. The other teams were considered potential semi-finalists, but no one gave any other team a chance to win the tournament.

The tournament started on a familiar note, with Italy beating Turkey 3-0 and Wales holding Switzerland to a 1-1 draw. The next match, Denmark vs. Finland was supposed to be a regular affair. It was the first time that Finland qualified for the Euro, and Denmark was expected to win against the inexperienced Finnish team. The match started on a strong note, but both teams remained goalless for the first 40 minutes. And then something happened, that would become the defining moment for the whole of Euro 2020, given the circumstances in which the tournament was being played.

Near the end of the 1^st half, Denmark’s star player Christian Eriksen collapsed on the field. It was not in response to a tackle by the opposing team – he just collapsed on the field and lay motionless. Everyone realised that something was wrong.  A lot has been written about this incident already – how his captain Simon Kjær prevented Eriksen from swallowing his own tongue thereby saving his life, how the Danish players and the paramedics formed a circle around Eriksen to allow the doctors to do their job in private and how the goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and later Simon comforted Eriksen’s partner and mother of their two children. What stood out was the behaviour of the Finnish fans in the crowd. While Eriksen was being carried out of the stadium, they handed their flags to the paramedics to shield Eriksen. After a while, they started chanting “Christian” over and over and even the Denmark fans get it and start chanting “Eriksen” back. Such unity is rarely seen on a football field – fans get upset with their own team, let alone support their opponent!

(A Finnish Flag being used to cover Eriksen as he is escorted from the ground. Source: @CaIMcI)

To the surprise of everyone, the match resumed after a few hours. Finland scored 15 minutes into the 2^nd half, and the score remained 1-0 in their favour till the end of the 90 minutes. The loss to Finland was a big blow. Denmark were the clear favourites to win the match against the much-lower ranked Finnish team. A draw would have still been acceptable, but a loss changed the equation. The team did not care. They were worried about Eriksen, and the match was the last thing on their mind that night. Christian Eriksen wasn’t simply their best player. He was also part of the leadership group of the team and was a near constant in their side, having played in 109 of 120 matches since his international debut in 2010.

The next match was with the No. 1 team Belgium, and they knew it was not going to be an easy task to win/draw against them without their star player. They did stick to their game plan – to attack at every possible opportunity and to take shots even if it seemed tough to score. They were defeated but were surely not outplayed. They still had the belief that they could make it to the next round and go even further. But the road seemed long and hard.

The match against Belgium did have its incredible moments. A huge No. 10 Eriksen shirt was unveiled on the pitch before the start of the game as a tribute to their star player. Poulsen scored the second fastest goal in the history of the Euros to put Denmark in the lead, to a huge uproar in the whole stadium, which would have surely woken up anyone sleeping within a few miles of the stadium! Both teams agreed to put the ball out in the 10^th minute of the game to join in a stirring applause for Eriksen. Simon and Kasper were seen hugging in the Danish penalty area. Eriksen’s Inter Milan teammate and Belgian star player Romelu Lukaku was seen embracing the Danish player Thomas Delaney while a banner “All of Denmark is with you Christian” appeared in the stands.

Going into the final match of Group B, Denmark knew that only a sizeable win over Russia, coupled with a favourable result of the concurrently happening match between Belgium and Finland, would see them progress to the knock-out stages. This was turning out to be the 2^nd most exciting group in the tournament (after the group of death comprising of Germany, Portugal, France and Hungary)

Despite all this pressure, the Danish team was more worried about Eriksen’s condition than their own qualification status. They were following every bit of news regarding their teammate and were praying for his speedy recovery. So, it was no wonder that his surprise physical presence infused a new energy into the team. One of the first things that Eriksen did after his discharge from the hospital, was to visit his teammates. Describing the scene at the training session, Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel recalled “He came to training and we were out on the pitch -- it was a great moment. It was nice to see him. I was lucky enough to be able to visit him in the hospital and to see him there, but for a lot of the boys that was the first time for them seeing him. So, naturally, training stopped straight away and everyone went over to him." He continued “I think the most important thing for us was to know that Christian was okay. This visit helped a lot of the guys, I think, just to see him and to just to erase the last image we had of him on the pitch. It gave us the space to go and focus on the game because we were under pressure in a football sense, but I think, as you see, we didn't play like a side under pressure.” In his own words, this visit was “the catalyst the team needed.”

In an article written before the tournament began, Pernille Harder (captain of the Denmark Women’s Football Team, and 2-time UEFA Women’s Player of the Year) said that early losses do not matter as much as how teams cope with the loss and move on to their next matches. In her own words, “If you lose a game, you can’t let it get too deep, you can’t let the criticism and talk get to you. You have to move on to the next game, develop and improve through the tournament.” And improve they did in a spectacular fashion – trashing a clueless Russian Team 4-1 in their last group game. Only after their manager checked a live football app to see the score of the Belgium-Finland match did they realise that they had progressed to the knock-out stages, and the celebrations couldn’t get any better!

Their next match against Wales wasn’t going to be easy – they were playing away from their home-ground for the first time in this tournament, against a Welsh team that had finished a strong 2^nd in their own group. However, the match turned out to be a one-sided affair, and Denmark outplayed Wales in every parameter, winning decisively by a 4-0 margin. There was a new belief in the team that it could go all the way. In a later article, Pernille Harder mentioned that collective experience of trauma bonds people and the Denmark was channelling the same into their games. The players went through a traumatic experience, but they went through it together, and that’s what mattered.

Their next opponent was a resurgent Czech Republic team, that rallied around their star striker Patrik Schick to reach this stage (do not miss Patrik Schick’s blinder against Scotland, surely the goal of the tournament). But there was a measure of calm in the Danish camp. The support they received from their fans, and the positive news of Eriksen’s recovery lifted some of their pressure. They knew that everyone would be proud of what they did so far, no matter the result. This new-found sense of freedom carried them through as they defeated the Czech Republic 2-1 in the quarterfinals. Their captain Simon Kjaer admitted that Christian Eriksen's cardiac arrest brought the squad together and that it helped them reach the semi-finals “It did something to the group. We thrive and we're safe together. We know we can trust the people around us. We know that if one of us is in trouble, then someone else is there for you”, he was quoted. With this win, they reached their first Euro Cup semi-final in 29 years. The last time they did was in 1992, when they had gone to win the tournament.

The semi-final against England, at the English home ground, turned out to be as exciting as everyone expected it to be. The English wall was breached in the first half, with England conceding a goal for the first time in 8 matches thanks to a beautiful freekick by Damsgaard. However, the travel fatigue soon set in, and Denmark started making errors. Their defence was breached several times, and it was the heroic efforts of their goalkeeper who kept them in the game with his many incredible saves. In the end, Denmark lost 2-1 to England in extra time. Their dream run had ended. There was no question, however, that Denmark had won the hearts and mind of football fans all around the world.

Euro 2020 did have its underdogs who put up a fighting spirit. Teams like Hungary and North Macedonia showed why they deserved to qualify for Euro 2020. But this tournament will be remembered for Denmark, and how they won over the world with their behaviour, both on and off the field. They went farther than anyone expected them to at the start of the tournament, and they will be leaving with their heads held high.

There will be critics who will attribute this dream run to pure luck. They played all three group games at home. They qualified in 2^nd place even though they won just one match in their group. Their next two opponents in the knock-out games were Wales and the Czech Republic – not the two most daunting names in football history. However, given the circumstances in which they began the tournament, it would not be a surprise if lady luck decided to indeed smile on them. Denmark were always a good team, it just took a cardiac arrest to bring out their very best in the face of adversity.

(Thank you for reading. Special thanks to Deepak bhai for helping me polish this write-up and to Pernille Harder for your insightful articles)