[Euro] Hojbjerg, Schmeichel, Christensen… These Danes who shine in the Premier League

With seven players from Denmark playing in the Premier League and Championship (D2), often in big clubs, the enemy may come from within Wednesday for England (9 p.m.) in the semi-finals of the Euro.

They are ten Red and White to have taken part in all matches since the start of the competition and four play in the English top flight: Kasper Schmeichel in Leicester, Andreas Christensen in Chelsea, Jannik Vestergaard in Southampton and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in Tottenham .

Winner of the Champions League with the Blues, Christensen is one of the players who took advantage of the arrival of Thomas Tuchel to become an important part of Chelsea’s three-way defense quite similar to that he practices in selection.

He held the blue house while Thiago Silva was injured before he was in turn affected and deprived of the C1 final.

He continued his momentum in this Euro, showing beyond his athletic qualities a good ball insurance at the foot, even adding a magnificent and capital goal against Russia (4-1) to snatch the qualification in eighth.

Behind him he will find Kasper Schmeichel, one of the Premier League’s most regular and reliable goalkeepers.

Son of another legendary goalkeeper, Peter, who led Denmark to the coronation in 1992 and made the rich hours of Manchester United, Kasper has competition in his blood and a taste for victory in his DNA.

Champion with Leicester in 2016, alongside Riyad Mahrez or N’Golo Kanté, he narrowly missed qualifying for the Champions League in the last two seasons.

Wembley, a stadium well known to the Danes

He will not be disoriented at Wembley, where the Danes came to tame England (1-0) in October in the League of Nations, since there also won the FA Cup in May with the Foxes by defeating Chelsea. Christiansen (1-0) and Mason Mount, whom he could find against him and whose attempt he had magnificently rejected in the 87th.

Hojbjerg has also played at Wembley this season, with Spurs, but has less fond memories of it, since he lost the League Cup final there to Manchester City (1-0).

A catchy midfielder, but also a good raiser, Hojbjerg made the transition last summer from a club playing maintenance, Southampton, to a “Big 6” team, being one of the few satisfactions of generally mediocre Londoners .

Basic man of José Mourinho’s system, he is also in the selection where the duo he forms with Thomas Delaney was one of the most effective of the tournament. The two men offered verticality to their team by being able to compensate for the climbs of one or the other without the organization losing its coherence.

Delaney undoubtedly gave some little “tips” to his teammates on Harry Kane, the number one danger for the Danes with his three goals in this Euro.

Jannik Vestergaard will also have accounts to settle with the English captain who had humiliated the rearguard of Southampton (5-2) in September in the league.

The England striker delivered four assists for Son Heung-min and scored one goal.

It is rumored that Tottenham would like to recruit Vestergaard. If he would probably only run into Kane, on the start, he could join Hojbjerg to give an even more Nordic accent to the north London club.

AFP / LQ

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