After an outstanding start to the tournament by Will Osula, the Newcastle United striker was in EURO U21 action on Saturday evening.
The 21-year-old helped Denmark finish top of Group D after three goals and two assists across 136 minutes of football so far, seeing him become the Dane’s main man up top despite starting their first group game on the bench.
However, despite topping their group, they took on one of the tournament favourites France in today’s quarter-final, hoping for a place in the semis after Tino Livramento and England booked their spot in the last four on Saturday night.
Osula was lacking service and good balls to feet, but he was a handful up top, especially for France’s Castello Lukeba; the £40m-rated centre-back scouted by Liverpool who was struggling to handle Osula’s pace and energy.
But, aside from some mixed success with his hold up play and a few bursting runs into the channels, the big man was quiet and taken off just before the hour mark while his side were 2-1 up.
Slight frustration from a personal point of view, despite more flashes of promise, but he’d been part of a huge Danish effort to this point, with goals from Clement Bischoff and Oliver Sørensen either side off Djaoui Cisse’s equaliser for France keeping them ahead.
Spurs duo Mathys Tel and Wilson Odobert were in the French side and the former thought he’d headed in an equaliser until VAR chalked it off, keeping Denmark ahead with just over 15 minutes remaining.
However, just five minutes from time, Marseille’s Quentin Merlin arrowed a superb strike into the top corner from 20 yards to make it 2-2 – then came another dagger to the heart of Osula and the Danes.
Seconds after the restart, Tel made it 3-2 as he curled in brilliantly from the left, turning the game on its head just minutes after Denmark thought they were closing in on the semis.
France then held on to book their spot in the final four, where Livramento’s England will face the Netherlands next Wednesday before France take on the winners of Germany vs Portugal (8pm tonight).