The heartbreaking and heartwarming hour

My fingers are still shaking as I type but I’ve tried to gather my thoughts on what happened in Copenhagen and around the world on 12th June 2021.

I have been watching football for about 14 years now but never has my heart pounded the way it did this Saturday, for around an hour. And I wish it never does again. No one would. The moment he collapsed on the ground, I kept aside my Euro 2020 notebook and forgot that this was a football match.

While the world beyond the green turf of Parken Stadion, Copenhagen barely knew how to react to the situation, thankfully those on the pitch, no matter how distraught they were at that time, did all that needed to be done.

As soon as Eriksen fell face first onto the turf, the Finnish midfielder, Robin Lod raised both his hands, signaling towards the benches. The referee, Anthony Taylor immediately stopped the play, quickly followed by the medics rushing to attend Christian. None of my words can describe what his teammates went through and did in those moments. Captain Simon Kjaer who was part of the team when Christian made his national debut was one of the first ones to rush to him and help place him in a recovery position. He later, along with Denmark goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, also comforted Eriksen’s partner near the touchline as he received treatment on the other side of the ground. The Denmark players stood around their mate, linking arms to form a human shield, as the medics attended him.

Their counterparts were all down on their knees, not able to register what had just happened. That this was their first appearance as a nation in a major football tournament didn’t mean a thing. That this was the first time Denmark hosted a football event of this significance meant even little. A day that was meant to be celebrated in the two Nordic nations had turned into a nightmare. Tears and prayers coexisted amongst the fans in the stands.

These pictures were being watched by billions across the world, live. Could that have been avoided? A question humankind must ask of themselves. Not just those who were supposed to run the broadcast of a football match and had little idea of how to deal with this harrowing incident. But also, those who in good intentions of using their social media feeds to ask people to do something as simple and human as pray for the 29-year old fighting for his life put the same visuals in the public domain. For if we truly believe that we are one big family, then showing pictures of one of us going through his toughest moments and his dearest ones shouldn’t nearly be our course of action.

Not all that happened in that hour warrants questions and arguments. The Finnish Fans dropped their flags so that the medical staff could use them to cover Eriksen during the treatment and when he was being stretchered off the pitch on his way to Rigshospitalet. The crowd applauded Christian, his teammates, and the medical team as they left the pitch.

The anxiety would stay for a little longer until UEFA gave the first important detail via their social media handles, “The player has been transferred to the hospital and has been stabilized”.

But, in those few more minutes of darkness, before the light emerged, hope prevailed. Social media is blamed more than it is praised, but in those few minutes, it prayed. For one of us. Football may not have been the common denominator for people on Twitter or Instagram but their prayers for the concern of one Christian Eriksen made him what we say no player can be, bigger than the game.

Fans inside the Parken Stadion gave us visuals that’ll help us in keeping hope alive during the toughest situations for many more years to come. Praying during their wait for an update on Christian’s recovery, like the rest of us, the two sets of fans sang his name. The Finland fans chanting, ‘Christian’, Denmark fans answering, ‘Eriksen.’ It felt like it would have, in the early days of humankind when there wasn’t a word called ‘borders’ and not a religion other than ‘the one big family.’

The Denmark FA gave the second news that offered relief via their social channels, “Christian Eriksen is awake and his condition remains stable. He remains hospitalized for further examinations. The match against Finland will resume tonight at 20:30. This happens after the players have been confirmed that Christian is okay.”

The match resuming only an hour later was indeed questionable. Reports from German broadcaster, Sportstudio suggested that Eriksen had asked his teammates to continue while providing assurance of his well-being from the hospital.

Amidst all the questions, as the Denmark players took the field ahead of the restart, they were received with applause from their Finnish counterparts. The two coaches, Kasper Hjulmand and Markku Kanerva shared a moment of their own, with the former looking a little more relieved given his number 10’s medical update. Kasper Schmeichel gave a warm hug and had a dialogue with every single one of his teammates before the play resumed. It didn’t even matter beyond that point as to who won or lost the game, as it wouldn’t eventually.

Finland won their first-ever game and scored their first-ever goal in a major international football tournament. A goal that could have been followed by the wildest of celebrations in the history of the game was met with utmost dignity from the scorer, Joel Pohjanpalo who made a run as soon as the ball hit the net but quickly realized it didn’t mean anything in context to what he and everyone had witnessed not so long ago.

Some 1500 km away from Copenhagen, in St. Petersburg, Christian Eriksen’s club teammate, Romelu Lukaka scored Belgium’s first goal in EURO 2020 and dedicated it to his friend by turning to the pitch-side camera and saying, “Chris, I love you”.

“It was difficult today to play. I cried a lot (before the game). I dedicate my performance to him. We lived strong moments for a year and a half. I’ve spent more time with him than my family. My thoughts with him, his girlfriend, and his two kids,” said Lukaku after the game in Russia ended with Belgium’s 3-0 win.

The goals, the result would’ve barely mattered for Lukaku last night, like it didn’t to any of us who experienced that heartbreaking and heartwarming hour.

Perhaps a Denmark coach in tears set the context right after the game ended in Copenhagen,

“It was a really tough evening, on which we’ve all been reminded what the most important things in life are. It’s meaningful relationships. It’s those people who are close to us. It’s family and friends.”