A-WALL-ING Why Denmark’s free-kick opener against England should have been DISALLOWED in Euro 2020 semis

THE referee missed Denmark sneakily moving their wall into an illegal position for the opener in Wednesday's Euro 2020 semi-final.

Posted Thursday, July 08, 2021 by Thesun.co.uk

Mikkel Damsgaard hit the back of the net with a powerful free-kick after half an hour at Wembley.

It appeared that Jordan Pickford had lost sight of the ball and was slow to try and save the shot, which was not fully in the corner of the goal.

The England goalkeeper was likely obscured by the three-man Danish wall that moved into position moments before the shot.

Referee Danny Makkelie checked to ensure the trio were well clear of the Three Lions' wall before stepping back to commence the free-kick.

And as Damsgaard stepped up, the Danish players moved across to stand next to England's setup.

Doing so is illegal according to Law 13 of the football rulebook - which stipulates that a defensive wall must be given a yard of space by attackers.

It reads: "Where three or more defending team players form a ‘wall’, all attacking team players must remain at least 1 m (1 yd) from the ‘wall’ until the ball is in play."

Alas, Dutch ref Makkelie was not alone in spotting the incident and only a few social media viewers called the Danes out.

Twitter user Tim posted: "The Denmark goal should have been disallowed. Last second, as the taker runs up, they moved their wall to within a metre of our wall and blocked Pickford's view. That's an offence under current rules."

A-WALL-ING Why Denmark’s free-kick opener against England should have been DISALLOWED in Euro 2020 semis
Mikkel Damsgaard's free-kick was technically illegal Credit: Getty

A-WALL-ING Why Denmark’s free-kick opener against England should have been DISALLOWED in Euro 2020 semis
Denmark's attackers encroached onto England's wall before the kick was taken Credit: AP

James dubbed it: "Wall-housery."

And KS tweeted: "Denmark were defo smart with their wall positioning, the actual freekick wasn’t even amazing."

But the goal standing turned out not to matter as England fought back to win and reach a major international final for the first time in 55 YEARS.

Simon Kjaer scored an own goal just before half-time to get England level, with the game going to extra-time after some stunning saves by Kasper Schmeichel.

But England finally scored the winner after Raheem Sterling was judged to have been brought down in the box.

Harry Kane stepped up and though his poor penalty was saved by Schmeichel, the rebound fell kindly straight back into his path and Kane slotted home the winner.