Harry Kane was asked if it was the best one-two he ever played.
“Damn right it is!” told the excited England captain to ITV. “It was not the punishment I wanted to carry out. It went lower than I thought, but a bonus is that it bounced back to me.”
Kasper Schmeichel was the unfortunate player in Denmark who claimed “assist” for England’s extra time winner in Wednesday’s semi-final. The goalkeeper was almost outfoxed by how tame a penalty it was: when he tried to hold the ball, he only managed to parry it back to Kane for a drop.
However, no one could blame Schmeichel for Denmark’s defeat. Stats Perform will definitely not try: according to our Opta player index, the Leicester City man was the player’s round in the Euro 2020 semi-final and scored 99.1 for his performance at Wembley Stadium. For the context, the only goalkeeper who registered a better figure in these finals was Switzerland Yann Sommer (99.6) in his quarterfinal against Spain.
The important statistics / statistics perform
Schmeichel has enjoyed playing at Wembley this year. In May, he produced a spellbinding save to deny Mason Mount when Leicester beat Chelsea 1-0 in a memorable FA Cup final. He was in the same mood against England, when Denmark played in their first European Championship semi-final since 1992, when his father, Peter, saved a penalty from the great Marco van Basten to secure a place in the final.
Kasper Schmeichel did not like any such celebrations after the extra time, but it was still an achievement to enjoy. He made exceptional saves to deny Raheem Sterling, Harry Maguire and Harry Kane, as well as to keep the penalty away from the England captain. He even produced a brilliant block to deny Sterling during the dying seconds from point-blank intervals, which allowed Denmark to hope for a little longer.
In total, Schmeichel made nine saves in 120 minutes. According to Opta’s expected goal on goal (xGOT) model – a measure of the quality of goal attempts – the 34-year-old prevented 2.9 goals in the semifinals. It is the highest value of a goalkeeper in a single European Championship match since at least 1980.
Such was the apt character of Schmeichel’s performance that you began to feel that Denmark would be favorites if the competition were to be punished. It was a fair prediction given that he saved the spot-kick he ended up facing, but fate, it seems, was on England’s side.
Denmark has had a remarkable run at these finals, which are carried by passionate support from both fans and neutrals after the terrible scenes of Christian Eriksen’s collapse in their opening game. Several players will be candidates for the tournament team, but few have a stronger case than Schmeichel.
