WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Netherlands are playing Denmark in their first group game at the European Championship.
Here is a running account of Saturday’s developments.
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1810: Denmark win a free-kick from around thirty yards out. Christian Eriksen takes but hits it straight into the wall. Chance for Van Persie and he should have scored. Robben pulls the ball across the six yard box and it hits the heel of Simon Kjaer. The ball spins to Van Persie who hits it first time wide of the goal from around ten yards.
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1807:
Van Persie wins a header, knocking it back towards Ibrahim Afellay. The ball takes a fraction too long to come down for him though and there was enough pressure on him from the defender as he shot high and wide.
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1803: Agger wins a header from a free-kick, which is taken with comfort by Stekelenburg. Willems later attempts a shot which flies over. It was close, though and Willems is clearly not fazed by the big stage.
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1802
The Netherlands kick-off. The pitch looks in very good condition and there is a sea of orange in the stadium. Dutch fans have turned out in big numbers.
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1800: They’re off.It’s a warm evening in Kharkiv.
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1758: Stephan Andersen is in goal for Denmark after first choice Thomas Sorensen was ruled out of the tournament through injury. Daniel Agger captains Denmark and Mark van Bommel is captain of the Netherlands. The players shake hands and kick-off is imminent. The Netherlands are in their traditional orange kit whilst Denmark are in white. According to his official website, Huntelaar has scored 31 goals in 52 games for the Netherlands. He was top scorer in qualifying, too, with twelve goals in eight games.
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1753: Denmark substitutes: Lindegaard, Christian Poulsen, Bjelland, Okore, Schone, Silberbauer, Pedersen, Wass, Jakob Poulsen, Kahlenberg, Mikkelsen, Schmeichel.Netherlands substitutes: Vorm, Mathijsen, Bouma, Kuyt, Huntelaar, Schaars, Strootman, Luuk De Jong, Narsingh, Boulahrouz, Van der Vaart, Krul.
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1752: Striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is on the substitutes bench for the Netherlands.
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1750: Four stewards hospitalized after Russia v Czech Republic. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/soccer/russia-fans-at-euro-2012-attack-stewards-after-czech-match-4-stewards-hospitalized-158294485.html
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1745: There you have it. At 18 years and 71 days, Jetro Willems becomes the youngest player to compete at a European Championship. Willems breaks the record set by Enzo Scifo of Belgium, who was 18 years and 115 days. Scifo played against Yugoslavia during Euro 1984.
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1741: Teams: Denmark: Andersen, Agger, Jacobsen, Kjaer, Poulsen, Eriksen, Krohn-Dehli, Kvist, Zimling, Bendtner, Rommedhal. Netherlands: Stekelenburg, Heitinga, Van der Wiel, Vlaar, Willems, Afellay, De Jong, Sneijder, Van Bommel, Robben, Van Persie.
