June 30 – Denmark manager Kasper Hjulmand has taken aim at football’s “ridiculous” handball rule after his side were beaten 2-0 by Germany in a controversial, storm-ravaged last-16 tie that was settled in the space of two dramatic minutes.
“This is not how football should be,” Hjulmand bemoaned after two VAR decisions against his brave team helped knock them out.
First Joachim Andersen’s goal on 48 minutes was ruled out following a VAR intervention that highlighted a marginal offside involving Denmark midfielder Thomas Delaney in the build-up. That was followed by a penalty to Germany after another VAR call, also against Anderson, for the most miniscule of handballs when the ball brushed his arm.
“It was decided by two VAR decisions,” Hjulmand fumed. “I have the photo here [of the Delaney offside]. It was one centimetre. It’s not how we are supposed to be using VAR.”
“And one minute later there was a penalty. I’m so tired of the ridiculous handball rules, we cannot ask our defenders to run without their arms. Joachim was running normally. It’s a normal situation, he jumped and was hit from one metre. I rarely talk about these situations but it was very decisive for this game. Being in front at 1-0 would have been very important and changed everything for our team.”
“Good luck for Germany, but in my opinion, this is not how football should be. When we are told, this is not a natural position for handball because the player has to have his arms out to run. Just tell me what the rule is.”
UEFA issued a statement on its website defending the handball decision and the use of technology to detect the handball by Andersen.
“During the match between Germany and Denmark, connected ball technology housed inside Adidas’s Fussballliebe ball showed that Denmark defender Joachim Andersen touched the ball with his hand inside the penalty area,” UEFA said.
“In this instance, the sensor was able to record accurately the touch of the hand of the player with the surface of the ball.
“The ‘heartbeat’ of the ball shown on broadcast is the same as the referee sees during the on-field review and discerns the point of contact accurately to five-hundredths of a second.”
Hjulmand, meanwhile, defended referee Michael Oliver’s decision to take both teams off the field due to a powerful electrical storm that caused a 20-minute delay.
“I wasn’t frightened, but I was looking for the players,” he said. “I was involved in a game in Denmark when the lightning hit one of my players, so I know how dangerous it can be. The lightning was right over the stadium, I saw my players’ reaction and it was the right thing to come off.”
Denmark, semi-finalists at the last Euros three years ago, go home from Germany without winning a game, having qualified from their group with three draws.
“It’s frustrating. It’s frustrating for our team,” added Hjulmand before he congratulated German coach Julian Nagelsmann. “Big congratulations to Germany. Julian is doing a great job. Good luck with the rest of the tournament but in my opinion this is not how football is supposed to be.”
Germany also had a goal disallowed early doors and Nagelsmann accused the referee of being “petty” for disallowing Nico Schlotterbeck’s effort. But he was more than happy with the performance of team who are playing with verve and exceptional energy, a far cry from the last three major tournaments when Germany limped out prematurely.
“We fought well against adversity, the team’s resilience was strong,” he said. “Hopefully the team are getting rid of the old memory stick and realise how good they actually are.”
Germany have now scored 10 goals in four games – the highest scorers at Euro 2024 – but Nagelsmann believes they can still get better.
“There is always room to grow,” he said. “The first 20 minutes in this game was very good but we could speed up our game in ball possession. If we do like we did in the first 20 minutes it is really, really tough to beat us.”
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