EURO 2020 Quarterfinal LIVE Score, Czech Republic vs Denmark: Schick starts in CZE vs DEN, Hjulmand picks Stryger over Wass

Welcome to Sportstar's LIVE coverage of the EURO 2020 Quarterfinal match Czech Republic vs Denmark. This is Santadeep Dey, bringing you all the action as it unfurls at the Baku Olympic Stadium.

LIVE COMMENTARY

Stay tuned! The live coverage of the Euro 2020 quarterfinal CZE vs DEN begins at 9:30PM IST.

TEAM NEWS AND LINEUPS

The Czech Republic has made only one change to the team, which beat the Netherlands in the Round of 16 last Sunday - Jan Boril is back after his one-match suspension and replaces Pavel Kaderabek at left-back.

Tomas Soucek is set to wear the captain's armband today for only the third time in his career as Vladimir Darida starts on the bench.

Czech Republic: Vaclik; Coufal, Celustka, Kalas, Boril; Holes, Soucek (c); Masopust, Barak, Sevcik; Schick

Subs: Kaderabek, Brabec, Darida, Krmencik, Jankto, Mandous, Zima, Vydra, Kral, Koubek, Pekhart, Pesek

The Danes are unchanged. Kasper Dolberg retains his place. Coach Kasper Hjulmand has also chosen to go with Jens Stryger-Larsen at right wing-back with Daniel Wass among the substitutes.

Denmark: Schmeichel; Christensen, Kjaer (c), Vestergaard; Stryger, Hojbjerg, Delaney, Maehle; Braithwaite, Dolberg, Damsgaard

Subs: Andersen, Skov, Skov Olsen, Mathias Zanka Jorgensen, Norgaard, Lossl, Wass, Wind, Poulsen, Cornelius, Ronnow, Jensen

Denmark:

Match Officials: Referee - Bjorn Kuipers (NED); Assistant referees - Sander van Roekel (NED), Erwin Zeinstra (NED); Fourth official - Sergei Karasev (RUS); Video Assistant Referee - Pol van Boekel (NED)

PREDICTED XI

Czech Republic: Vaclik; Coufal, Celustka, Kalas, Kaderabek; Holes, Soucek; Masopust, Barak, Sevcik; Schick

Denmark: Schmeichel; Christensen, Kjaer, Vestergaard; Wass, Hojbjerg, Delaney, Maehle; Braithwaite, Dolberg, Damsgaard

RECENT FORM

Czech Republic: W-L-D-W-W

Denmark: W-W-L-L-W

OPTA STATS

• Five of the last six matches between the Czech Republic and Denmark have ended as draws, including their most recent encounter in a November 2016 friendly. The other game in this run was a 3-0 Denmark win in a March 2013 World Cup qualifier.
• With a 4-1 victory against Russia and a 4-0 victory against Wales, Denmark became the first team in European Championship history to score four plus goals in consecutive games in the competition. It has nine goals so far at Euro 2020, only scoring more in a major tournament in the 1986 World Cup (10).
• This is the Czech Republic's fourth European Championship quarterfinal, progressing from two of the previous three (1996 vs Portugal, 2004 vs Denmark) but failing the last time it reached this stage in 2012, losing 1-0 to Portugal.
• Denmark is averaging 18.8 shots and 7.3 shots on target per game so far at EURO 2020. Both are its highest numbers on record at a single edition at a major tournament (since 1966 - World Cup and EURO).
• Mikkel Damsgaard has been directly involved in seven goals in his six appearances for Denmark in all competitions, scoring three and assisting four. Damsgaard created more chances than any other Danish player in its 4-0 victory against Wales in the last round (three).

MATCH PREVIEW

From the despair of seeing a teammate suffer cardiac arrest to the European Championship quarterfinals, somehow Denmark keeps on going.

Denmark will face the Czech Republic on Saturday, exactly three weeks after midfielder Christian Eriksen collapsed on the field in the team's opening game and had to be resuscitated with a defibrillator.

While Eriksen recovers — initially in the hospital and now at home — Denmark has improved at Euro 2020. A 4-1 win over Russia got Denmark out of the group stage after two losses. Beating Wales 4-0 in the round of 16 matched the team's best showing since “Danish Dynamite” won the 1992 European Championship.

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“Culture-wise, there's similarities. Values of sticking (together), one for all and all for one," Denmark midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg said on Thursday. "There's this pride also to be playing for your country and all these values that I don't think have changed too much since 1992.

“But my biggest respect to the guys in ′92 because they went on to win it. We haven’t done anything yet.”

Since the “shock” of Eriksen's sudden collapse, Hojbjerg said, Denmark has gone through huge emotional ups and downs.

 

“Now we’re in the quarterfinals, so it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster, a big one," he said. "And the good thing is that we are still hungry. We’re still determined to push for more.”

More than half of the 26-man squad was not yet born when Denmark beat Germany 2-0 in the 1992 final. The only European quarterfinal appearance since then came in 2004, a 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic. Hojbjerg was eight years old back then and recalls he was “not very happy” he couldn't watch the match because of a school trip.

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That tournament ended in disappointment for the Czechs, too. They lost to eventual champion Greece 1-0 in the semifinals. As Czechoslovakia, the team won the European title in 1976. As the Czech Republic, the high point was being runner-up to Germany in 1996.

Both Denmark and the Czech Republic have been at their best at EURO 2020 when playing high-intensity, physical football against opponents who wanted possession. They could end up cancelling each other out in the quarterfinals. That's playing on Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand's mind, so much so that he admitted he was disappointed the Czech team upset the Netherlands 2-0 in the round of 16.

“I would rather have played the Netherlands,” Hjulmand told Danish broadcaster DR on Monday. “Now we’re facing a team for the first time (in the tournament) that I think can match our own intensity.”

 

Danish striker Yussuf Poulsen could return after missing the Wales game with a muscle injury, when replacement Kasper Dolberg scored twice. One more goal would see Czech Republic forward Patrik Schick match Cristiano Ronaldo as tournament leader with five.

Few Danish or Czech fans will be in the Baku Olympic Stadium for the game. Only Turkey, Azerbaijan's close ally, has had more than a couple hundred fans at games in the city so far.

“In my view it doesn't really make sense (to play in Baku). We are a bit frustrated but we respect this decision," Czech Republic midfielder Michal Sadilek said through an interpreter on Thursday. “We hope for any support we can get at the stadium and we are going to play so that we can have the fans at our next game.”

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Plans for a Czech charter flight to Baku fell apart because not enough fans agreed to go. Denmark may have up to 1,000 supporters and offered 50 of its most loyal fans a ride on the federation's plane.

Denmark has felt closer than most teams to its fans, who roared the team on to beat Russia in Copenhagen. In Amsterdam, too, the Danes were the local favourites in what felt like a home game against Wales.

“Every time we put on the shirt, every time we wear the badge of the Danish national team, we are playing for the country, we are having the country with us,” Hojbjerg said. “So in that way they will always be with us. Everybody will always be with us.”

- Associated Press

WHERE TO WATCH UEFA EURO 2020 LIVE IN INDIA? Sony Pictures Sports Network (SPSN) will telecast UEFA EURO 2020 in English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Fans can watch the action unfold LIVE on SONY TEN 2, SONY TEN 3, SONY SIX and SONY TEN 4 channels. The matches are also available for live streaming on SonyLIV and JioTV.