Quarantine rules have ruled Denmark’s travelling fans out of tomorrow’s semi-final at Wembley, although agreement has been reached to allow 1,000 make the journey for Sunday’s showdown if they get past England.

UEFA really had to do something seeing as an exemption had been secured for their top officials and other dignitaries while the rank and file fans were left frustrated, another consequence of this horrendously flawed format that has been heightened by a pandemic.

Denmark do have an allocation of 5,000 seats and they actually had to send out a message to their UK-based diaspora to answer the nation’s call. The Danish FA have sent jerseys and flags out to all those who have secured tickets in an attempt to generate a proper ‘away’ atmosphere. You sense they’ll be up against it.

 

No rest for stars now returning to reality

The start of the European club competitions this week creates an unusual overlap with the final week of the continent’s biggest international showcase. And there can be crossovers. Former Man City and Rangers winger Vladimir Weiss was in action off the bench against Spain earlier this month but while Luis Enrique and Co are in Wembley this week, the winger’s club Slovan Bratislava are preparing to host Shamrock Rovers tomorrow.

He has missed out on their pre-season activity for obvious reasons and it’s unclear if he will be pitched in but he might come under a bit of family pressure seeing as his father (also Vladimir Weiss) is now the Slovan boss.

 

One to watch

EMERSON (ITALY)

With Leonardo Spinazzola sadly ruled out of the picture, it appears that Roberto Mancini will have to turn to Chelsea fringe operator Emerson as his emergency deputy at left-back. The 26-year-old Brazilian-born Italian citizen played second fiddle to Ben Chilwell this season but he’s coming out of cold storage. His last Chelsea appearance was actually at Wembley, an 11-minute cameo in the FA Cup semi-final victory over Manchester City.

Number of the day: 3

Brazilian-born members of the Italian squad. Emerson can discuss memories of ‘home’ with Jorginho and defender Rafael Toloi. However, Jorginho did move to Italy aged 15 so, unlike the other pair, he did not play underage football for Brazil.

 

ON TV

Tonight: Spain v Italy 8.0 (RTÉ2, BBC1)