Christian Eriksen scored a stunning late goal to give Denmark a 2-1 win over Sweden in a lively pre-Euro 2024 friendly at a packed Parken stadium on Wednesday. This made Eriksen Denmark’s most creative player before the tournament in Germany.

After a little more than a minute, the home team broke the tie when Sweden’s defence was caught off guard by the first corner kick. Eriksen set up Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg for an easy goal.

The red-clad fans thought that was the start of a big attack, but the Swedes quickly answered through Alexander Isak. He took Jens Cajuste’s blocked shot and slammed it past Frederik Ronnow in the Danish goal seven minutes later.

Eriksen, 32, had a heart attack on the same field as Denmark’s first game against Finland in Euro 2020. He was in charge the whole time, and his curling, dipping goal in the 86th minute gave the Danes a well-deserved win.

Before the game, Sweden’s Danish coach, Jon Dahl Tomasson, was inducted into the Danish Football Hall of Fame. His team did a good job of defending, but they had trouble scoring because the Danish defenders often blocked Isak and Dejan Kulusevski.

Kasper Hjulmand, the coach of Denmark, praised Tomasson for his work so far with Sweden. Under Janne Andersson’s leadership, Sweden failed to qualify for the Euros, which made room for Hjulmand to take over.

“The man-to-man game they play is very rough.” “I think we turned the ball over too many times in the first half, which gave them chances they should not have had,” Hjulmand told TV2.

“We should have scored a little more … we must look at the opportunities Sweden got, because we must not give them chances,” he said.

Even though Eriksen had been criticised for a string of bad set pieces in qualifying, he was almost happy for setting up the first goal than for scoring the game-winner.

“It was nice, and it was good that we scored from a dead ball, I think it created a bit of calm in our team,” he told TV2.

Denmark’s last practice before Euro 2024 is this Saturday at home against Norway. Then they go to Germany to play in Group C against Slovenia, England, and Serbia.