According to the results of the European Championship, the Danish national team was not in the strongest group. Kasper Hjulmand’s team ended up in the company of Belgium, Russia and Finland. The Danes were clearly counting on reaching the playoffs. In 2021 the team significantly improved the quality of football and stability, having not suffered a single defeat in five matches. The qualification for the world championship became a kind of preparation for the upcoming Euro. The “scarlet guard” easily beat Israel (2:0), Moldova (8:0) and Austria (4:0), confidently becoming the leader of the group. The Danes also looked good in the test matches before the tournament. A 1:1 draw with Germany and a 2:0 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina clearly gave fans the optimism. In the first round Denmark met with Finland and in the first half had an unconditional advantage, but at the end of the first 45 minutes Christian Eriksen lost consciousness and doctors brought him to his senses for a long time. The captain of the Danish national team was sent to the hospital, the fight was stopped, but after it became known that nothing threatened the player’s life, it was decided to finish the meeting. Obviously, after such a blow Denmark was no longer the same and the opponent took advantage of this. Having managed to shoot only once towards Kasper Schmeichel’s goal, the Finns managed to score. The author of the only and winning goal was Yoel Pohjanpalo.
The national team of North Macedonia took only third place in the qualification stage of the group stage of the European Championship, losing to Austria and Poland. The Balkan squad got its ticket to the European World Cup in the playoffs of the League of Nations. In the decisive fights, the red lynxes first defeated Kosovo, after which they minimally sorted out with Georgia. Igor Angelovsky’s wards started in the selection process for the 2022 World Cup with a defeat against Romania (2:3), followed by the defeat to Liechtenstein (5:0) and the German national team (2:1), for which few could have predicted. In the first match of the current championship, the red lions held out well in the first half, in which they managed to score, but the second half put everything in its place. The result of this match was a 1:3 defeat from the Austrian national team and so far the last place in the group.
