Denmark was defeated by the host country Germany in the round of 16 at EURO 2024, with a score of 0-2, after a match decided by two highly debatable VAR decisions.
In the 69th minute of the game, Andersen committed a handball in his own penalty area, and after a VAR review, English referee Michael Oliver awarded a penalty, converted eagerly by Havertz. The Danish coach exploded in the post-match press conference, saying he doesn’t understand the new UEFA rules, referring to his team’s disallowed goal and the penalty awarded to the Germans. Just a minute before the first goal was scored, Denmark had a goal disallowed for an offside that was more than millimetric.
"First of all, I would like to congratulate Germany for this victory. They put pressure on us in the first 15 minutes, during which we were just trying to survive. Then it was more balanced. The match was decided by two VAR decisions. I have the images here, it was an offside by 1 centimeter! If we look at the statistics, the data, it doesn't make sense! This is not how we should use VAR, it's about a centimeter! And after a few minutes, they awarded a penalty.
"I'm fed up with these ridiculous handball rules. We can't ask defenders to keep their hands behind their backs. It's not natural! Joachim was running normally, it was a normal game situation! He jumped and was hit from a meter away. It's rare for me to talk about these decisions, but they were decisive! It's frustrating for our team, leading would have changed everything for us. But as I said, big congratulations to Germany, they have a great team and play well, Julian is doing a great job here. I wish them luck for the rest of the tournament, but in my opinion, football should be different."
"We were taught in seminars what the handball rule is, coaches kept asking what the natural hand position is? We were told that this is not a handball because it's a normal position for a running defender. I have doubts. What is the rule? Tell me what the rule is! That's what it was about," said coach Kasper Hjulmand at the end of the game.
Germany will face the winner between Spain and Georgia in the quarterfinals.
D.A.