Christian Eriksen impressed in the first half of Denmark’s Nations League defeat to Spain tonight but failed to impose himself in an extraordinarily one-sided second.
After the interval Denmark didn’t manage a single shot and Eriksen, along with the rest of their frontline, quickly faded from view and was replaced by Gustav Isaksen on 72 minutes.
Rasmus Hojlund entered the fray six minutes later but had little chance of making a difference in the face of wave upon wave of Spanish aggression.
Manchester United’s number 9 only had three touches of the ball and lost possession with one of them, but he was faced with an impossible task and shouldn’t be judged harshly.
In the earlier stages Eriksen thrived as he was deployed further forward than his usual role with United, where he has generally played deeper to partner Kobbie Mainoo.
He kept things ticking over from his right-sided position, finding his man with 89% of his passes and pinging five crosses into the box.
His sofascore rating of 7.0 was the highest of the Danish players.
Meanwhile, Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes dazzled for Portugal as they cruised to a 3-1 win over Poland in the Nations League.
Bruno Fernandes contributed a assist as headed the ball into Bernardo Silva’s path to score Portugal’s first goal
Fernandes formed part of a Portugal midfield trio also consisting of Manchester City’s Silva and Al Hilal star Ruben Neves.
During the time Fernandes was in action, he registered 62 touches of the ball and successfully found his teammates with 38 of the 44 passes he attempted, managing an individual pass accuracy of 86%. Four of his passes were key passes.
The playmaker tried to connect with two crosses and as many long balls. He didn’t find his target with any of the efforts and this is undoubtedly a metric he will be keen to improve on.
The United skipper created one big chance. He was a threat inside the box and was unlucky not to get on the score sheet. Fernandes had four shots to his name. Two were on-target while two others didn’t require Lukasz Skorupski to swing into action.
Fernandes won five of the seven ground duels he contested and came out on top in the one aerial challenge he vied for. He put in one clearance, one interception and made four tackles.
The 29-year-old has endured a difficult start to the season at United and it’s great to see him being impactful once again. He recently took responsibility for his woes at club level as he vowed to do everything possible to return to good form. His performance against Poland was certainly a good way to start.
Another United star who lined up for Portugal was Diogo Dalot. The full-back made four clearances, two interceptions and one tackle.
Dalot won just one of the two ground duels he delved into.
He touched the ball on 77 occasions and successfully delivered 57 of the 62 passes he made. Two of these passes were key passes. The United defender also fired a shot that was on-target.
