England to meet Denmark at European Championships

Harry Kane struck twice as England thrashed Ukraine 4-0 to reach their first European Championship semi-final since 1996 and set up a clash with Denmark.

England captain Harry Kane.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT

The England captain raced onto a Raheem Sterling through ball to fire in the opener from close range after four minutes at the Stadio Olimpico, England’s earliest goal in a Euros match since 2004.

Harry Maguire headed home a second less than a minute into the second half and Kane soon nodded in his side’s third as Ukraine’s resistance crumbled.

Substitute Jordan Henderson completed the rout with his first international goal to ensure England’s comfortable passage into the last four.

Gareth Southgate’s side will face Denmark at Wembley on Thursday for a place in the final.

Fans had barely settled in their seats by the time England took the lead with a well-worked move.

Sterling cut in off the left wing and slid a through ball into a pocket of space behind the defence for Kane to race through and guide into the net with a neat finish.

Ukraine mustered their first effort when Kyle Walker gave the ball away in midfield and Roman Yaremchuk raced through to draw a good save by Jordan Pickford from a tight angle, while England’s Declan Rice and Jadon Sancho had shots beaten away by Georgiy Bushchan before halftime.

But England flexed their muscles after the break and ended the game as a contest within five minutes of the restart, helped by two fine assists from Luke Shaw.

The left-back whipped a free-kick onto Maguire’s head for a close-range finish in the first minute of the second half before steering a perfect delivery towards Kane for a simple close-range header four minutes later.

The goal sent Kane level with Alan Shearer as England’s second-top scorer at major tournaments with nine goals, behind Gary Lineker on 10, and he was denied a hat-trick when his ferocious volley was palmed away by the diving Bushchan.

England made it four from the resulting corner when Ukraine again failed to deal with a set-piece delivery as Henderson nodded in from six yards to score his first goal for his country on his 62nd cap.

Denmark are through to the semi-finals of the European Championships for the first time since they won the title in 1992.

Denmark’s rousing European Championships campaign continued as they beat the Czech Republic 2-1 to reach the semi-finals thanks to first-half strikes from Thomas Delaney and Kasper Dolberg.

Denmark are through to the semi-finals of the European Championships for the first time since they won the title in 1992.
Photo: Huw Evans Picture Agency Ltd

Patrik Schick responded for the Czechs early in the second half to score his fifth goal of the tournament and become the joint-top scorer with Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

However, Denmark stood firm to book their place in the semi-finals.

The result avenged Denmark’s 3-0 defeat by the Czechs in the last eight of Euro 2004 and meant they reached the semi-finals for the third time, taking them closer yet to adding to their unlikely triumph at Euro ’92.

Denmark got off to a flying start when Delaney took advantage of slack marking from a corner to head home in the fifth minute, although replays showed the corner should never have been given as the ball had come off a Danish player when it went out.

The Czechs struggled to respond and Denmark missed several chances to double their lead, with Mikkel Damsgaard, Delaney and Martin Braithwaite all spurning decent opportunities.

They eventually scored again at the end of the first half when left back Joakim Maehle delivered an inviting cross with the outside of his right foot which Dolberg side-footed in on the volley, adding to his double in the 4-0 win over Wales.

Denmark had ridden the wave of a raucous home crowd in their three group games in Copenhagen and also enjoyed strong support against Wales in the last 16 in Amsterdam, capturing the hearts of many neutrals after Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest in their opening game with Finland.

Even though there was a sizeable and noisy Danish contingent in Baku there was a less of a festive mood than in previous games as the players were separated by an atmosphere-sapping running track and sparse crowd in Azerbaijan, where locals have been largely less than enthusiastic about the tournament.

After a poor first half, the Czechs made a double change which instantly gave them more purpose in attack and one of their substitutes Michael Krmencik forced Kasper Schmeichel into a save immediately while moments later Antonin Barak made the keeper make a full-stretch save.

The goal soon followed, Schick meeting a Vladimir Coufal cross first time to beat Schmeichel and match Milan Baros’ five goals for the Czech Republic at Euro 2004.

But they failed to build on the momentum and Denmark woke up and defended well for the remainder of the half, ending the Czech Republic’s hopes of reaching a first Euros semi-final since 2004 and a first final since 1996.

They should have put the game to bed as substitute Yussuf Poulsen failed to beat Tomas Vaclik and Maehle was also denied by the keeper at point-blank range but their first-half goals proved just enough to see them through, the Czechs coming closest to levelling when a Barak strike flew just wide.

– Reuters