Romelu Lukaku and Christian Eriksen are teammates at Inter Milan. When the latter collapsed on the pitch mid-match in Copenhagen and had to be given CPR to be revived after which was taken to the hospital, everybody from the Denmark group, their opponents Finland, the followers within the stadium, everybody was horrified and tearful, praying for the well-being of Eriksen. An hour and a half after the incident, the Belgium vs Russia match went forward in Saint-Petersburg as deliberate. For Lukaku and your entire soccer group, it was extremely emotional and troublesome for the present to go on.
However, when Lukaku scored as early because the tenth minute, he rushed in direction of the digital camera, cupped it and mentioned, “Chris, Chris, stay strong — I love you.”
“Chris, Chris, I love you!”Romelu Lukaku has despatched his greatest needs to Christian Eriksen within the midfielder’s street to restoration. 💙 pic.twitter.com/L1AKjkbP1D
— Everton Extra (@Everton_Extra) June 12, 2021
Eriksen is currently in hospital, recovering and upon his request and with the players’ nod, UEFA completed the Denmark game as well, where Finland won 1-0.
Lukaku revealed that he cried ahead of the kick-off as he was extremely worried for his club teammates.
“I am really happy with the win, but it was hard for me to play because my thoughts were with Christian Erkisen.”
Belgium coach Roberto Martinez admitted different members of his squad have been additionally affected after seeing Eriksen out of the blue droop to the turf through the Denmark-Finland recreation.
“We have been watching the sport reside and 5 minutes afer Christian collapsed, we went right into a group assembly. As you possibly can think about, the very last thing we wished to do was discuss soccer,” said Martinez.
“There were a lot of tears from players who have shared dressing rooms and big moments with Christian.
“All our thoughts go to him and his family, but also to the Danish team, as that was a really tough moment.”
Before kick-off, the Belgium group have been booed for taking a knee to spotlight racial injustice, whereas their Russian opponents stood.
Jeers echoed across the Krestovsky Stadium as your entire Belgian group, in addition to Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz, knelt, whereas Lukaku, whose dad and mom come from the Democratic Republic of Congo, raised his proper fist.
England have mentioned they may do the identical for his or her opening recreation of the European Championship towards Croatia on Sunday.
Ex-NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling to protest towards racial injustice in 2016.
The gesture has develop into a well-recognized sight throughout a spread of sports activities since George Floyd, who was black, was killed by a white police officer within the United States final 12 months.
(With AFP inputs)
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