Second semifinal, EnGerLand vs The Vikings of Denmark. or It's coming home, the saga continues.

It is Italia. both teams now know who they will face on Sunday if they should win tonight. As we predicted yesterday, Espana dominated possession but could not do anything with it and once it went to penalties, it was patently obvious that Espana would lose. Adios Amigos, you just have not been good enough.

Today, the food options before us are not what most people thought I would use. I imagine that most people before the game starts will be wetting their whistle so to speak, so the first choice today is between Carlsberg, with their pretentious claim to be "probably the best lager in the world" slogan, a bold claim indeed, or a pint of John Smith's Yorkshire Bitter down the battlecruiser with Arkwright and his pals.

Giving the right incentive

Today's Danes are far removed from their Viking ancestors or from the characters that featured in the epic poem Beowulf, written in the sixth or seventh century in EnGerLand, about a Danish king besieged by the monster Grendel who is killed by a Swede called Beowulf. I remember learning it in school, it was interminably long and pretty unintelligible, but were not most things in school like that?

Anyway I digress, I like the Danes, I have two Danish neighbours, they are nice chaps, I shared the benches of further education with a Dane. He was called "The Dane" funnily enough, a lovely fellow.

Who did not grow up on the nice stories of Hans Christian Andersen, such as the princess and the pea or the little mermaid?

Another thing, is that a lot English people have Danish heritage, towns and villages along the East coast of Britain have Danish based names. Take Grimsby for example, it means Grim's village in Danish. A Viking raider decided it would be a nice place to live and his name was Grim. 

I highly recommend the series written by Bernard Cornwell, titled The Last Kingdom chronicling the formation of the kingdom of EnGerLand and all the battles with the Vikings that took place in that period. There are thirteen books in total and they are a great read.

This is what makes it difficult, they are very likable and one does not want to upset them, but tonight EnGerLand will be hoping to make the mermaid in Copenhagen harbour blush in shame.  

This is unchartered waters for almost all EnGerLand fans, today is the second semifinal in a row at consecutive major tournaments after EnGerLand lost to Croatia in 2018 and before that to Yugoslavia in 1968 two years after having won the world cup, a gap of fifty three years.

EnGerLand fans are hoping that this one will go better than either of those semifinals, or the two losses to Ze Shermans they have suffered as well. In total, EnGerLand have failed at their last four attempts in a major semifinal. If it was a school report it would read something like, "Young (insert name) has potential but has never realized it when it matters." Signed Mr. long suffering fan (insert name).

The last time these two teams met in a competitive game was in the World Cup in Japan 2002.

EnGerLand fans will be hoping for a repeat performance tonight.

Our historical reference today is the battle of Copenhagen in 1801 where a British fleet under the commend of Lord Nelson defeated a Danish fleet. Hopefully another omen for the game tonight.

The Vikings, as has been mentioned before, have been galvanized by the collapse and near death of their star Christian Ericksen, this type of unity is a dangerous thing for opponents to come up against. Although it sounds bad given the circumstances, the Danish players are willing to shed blood in their pursuit of the title. 

They are a good team, and have played some very nice football in getting to this point, but to be honest they have only faced one so called strong team in the Brussel sprouts and they lost that game to boot. 

Two to watch out for tonight are Joakim Maehle and Mikkel Damsgaard, the latter came in for Ericksen and has impressed everyone and the former has stood out, marauding down the flanks in true Viking fashion.

Damsgaard, a rising star

Maehle, hard to stop

Watching EnGerLand play the Cossacks in the quarterfinal was a surreal experience. The last time EnGerLand had scored four goals in a knockout game was the final in 1966. As we sat and watched the game, the tension that usually accompanies us when EnGerLand play visibly dissipated before our eyes. After sixty minutes and three goals to the good, with it clearly being obvious that Ukraine had given up, we were sitting talking about the performance of Vinnie Jones in She's the Man rather than the football we were watching. 

My cousin messaged me after the game and asked if I had enjoyed it and I replied no, she said some people are never happy.  I answered, we need the tension, win or lose.

The problem with a national side and this is not exclusive to EnGerLand is that when a team does well in a major tournament, the whole country gets caught up and swept along in a tidal wave of anticipation. 

This is terrible, as a supposed football maven, you get random people asking you for ones opinion on why Harry Kane is not doing "X" and should Jordan Henderson play instead of "Y". These same people would not recognize those players if they walked passed them in the street.

It is one thing to have informed discussion with you, my dear and loyal followers, we are invested in the game, but with Joe Bloggs, a test of ones patience for sure.

On paper, EnGerLand should have too much for the Vikings, but football is not played on paper. EnGerLand have yet to concede a goal and while that must eventually come to an end, that defensive stability  allied with the efficiency shown in front of goal so far by the English forwards should see them through to a meeting with Italia on Sunday. The added advantage of playing at home as well should not be understated.

On the other hand, all EnGerLand fans have been here before and it would be typical if this side did an EnGerLand and contrived to lose.

The two English player who have been central to the stability are Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips, two unsung players who have gone about their business with a minimum of fuss.

Kalvin, always smiling as he kicks you

Declan, the face of a navvy, but one that works hard

Tonight, at half time, we are going to sit down to pie and chips with HP sauce and it would be nice to have a little Danish pastry with lots of white icing on the top for our dessert. Going back to Mr. Andersen, the Vikings will be hoping that they are indeed the ugly duckling that turns out to be a swan. 

EnGerLand to win tonight, there I have written it.

Join us on Sunday for the preview of the final.