With 112 A international matches and a goal record of 52 complete hits in the red and white national team jersey, it was a special match for Sweden’s Danish national team captain Jon Dahl Tomasson. Before kick-off, the former striker was praised by a packed Parken in Copenhagen and was inducted into the Danish football Hall of Fame.
A great honor, Tomasson told Viaplay.
Already after barely 80 seconds, the hospitality was over. Then an unmarked Pierre-Emile Højbjerg was able to score the lead behind Robin Olsen on a corner.
Isak equalized
The reply was not long in coming. Alexander Isak has often started on the edge under Tomasson, but was now spearhead.
In the tenth minute, the Newcastle striker silenced Parken when he sent the 1-1 ball behind Frederik Rønnow in the home goal.
Isak got the goal chance after Jens Cajuste sneaked up into a midfield position and took a finish. Napoli player Cajuste started as left back, but had a clear mission to move across the entire midfield when Sweden had the ball.
The meeting with his native Denmark was Tomasson’s third international training match since he took over as national team captain in March and he says that the national team is under reconstruction.
With that comes some new building blocks. For the first time in his career, Niclas Eliasson (AEK Athens) is called up and now the 28-year-old took a place on the right in the attack.
EC-ready Denmark – Sweden, as you know, misses the football party in Germany – ruled and set initially. Above all, a staring blue-yellow defense in the corners worried the Danes, but offensively Sweden grew into the match.
Ekdal injured
Right when the second half was about to start, midfielder Simon Olsson was replaced in favor of Hugo Larsson. Team captain Victor Nilsson Lindelöf also stepped down and Hjalmar Ekdal took his place in defence. However, Ekdal only managed to be on the field for a few minutes before he was injured and was replaced by Carl Starfelt.
During most of the second half, it was sleepy and it was clear that it was a friendly international match, but even such, the Danes want to win against Sweden.
Danish national team captain Kasper Hjulmand rested some of his stars, but Manchester United midfielder Christian Eriksen was there from the start. In the 86th minute, he drove the ball up, took aim and scored the winning goal with his sharp right foot.
Tomasson says this to Viaplay about the match and being back at the Park:
I had a strange feeling in the weeks leading up to this game and actually this morning too. But when I got here, that feeling was gone. Then I just thought about the match and that I wanted to see Sweden play football. And I think we did pretty well.
After 2-5 against Portugal, 0-1 against Albania and now 1-2 against Denmark, Serbia awaits the “newly built” Sweden at the Friends arena on Saturday.