TOTTENHAM midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg broke down in tears as Denmark made it into the European Championships semi-finals.
Hojbjerg helped his side to a 2-1 win against Czech Republic and was full of emotion afterwards.
It has been a roller coaster tournament for the Danes, who lost their opening two matches in the delayed tournament.
More importantly, they are without star playmaker Christian Eriksen who suffered a cardiac arrest in their opening match against Finland.
Eriksen, 29, spent six days in hospital before being released and was recently pictured out for the first time.
Denmark have been spurred on throughout their unlikely route to the last four by Eriksen, as they now face England at Wembley on Wednesday.
And manager Kasper Hjulmand said his squad will have the midfielder in their thoughts as they continue to defy the odds.
He said: “The whole world of football understood that second, and the days after, the fundamental things in life and in football, the fundamental values of football came through right at that moment.
“There are so many other agendas in football, but we all remembered why we started to play football, what values football is based on and we had a reminder of this.
“I am still thinking of Christian every single day. He should have been here.
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“We are happy that he survived. We carry him all the way to this match and all the way to Wembley. I think about him all of the time.
“We all understood maybe that the values of football came through – and maybe we are a symbol of it. I could not be more happy than that.
“The team showed it without being told, ‘this is the way you should act’.
“It was just unbelievable to see this team how the reaction was, how much compassion and love they gave each other, but also the Danish population.
“We are just happy and proud we can maybe just remind ourselves why we love football and what football can do in the world.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
