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Lukaku praised after paying tribute to Christian Eriksen during Belgium win

Lukaku praised after paying tribute to Christian Eriksen during Belgium win

Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku has been praised after he paid tribute to Denmark’s Christian Eriksen and dedicated a win to the footballer after he collapsed during a Euro 2020 match on Saturday evening.

Eriksen received CPR on the pitch after he collapsed to the ground in the closing minutes of Denmark’s group stage game with Finland. The 29-year-old was quickly treated by the medical team and was placed in a stable condition before being moved to a hospital in Copenhagen where he was announced as awake.

Shortly after this Belgium started their Euro 2020 campaign as they kicked off against Russia in Saint Petersberg. The Belgians were comfortable 3-0 winners during the game with Lukaku scoring the first and third goals.

After netting the first, Lukaku ran over to the pitchside cameras and said “Chris, Chris...I love you!” a clear message of support for Eriksen. The two stars are teammates at Inter Milan.

Speaking to the press afterwards, Lukaku explained that although he was happy with the win it was a difficult game to play and he was scared for Eriksen. He dedicated Belgium’s win to his club teammate.

This was after the Belgium team were booed by Russian supporters for taking the knee to continue some nations stance against racial inequality.

There was an immediate outpouring of respect and applause for Lukaku for his generous gesture to Eriksen as well as dealing with the jeers from the Russian supporters in a professional manner.

Eriksen’s fellow Inter teammate Achraf Hakimi also paid tribute to the Dane after he scored in Morocco’s 1-0 friendly win over Burkina Faso.

Meanwhile, Gary Lineker and his colleagues at the BBC were also praised for how they dealt with the situation with their compassionate words and thoughts. This came after the BBC was criticised for lingering on the treatment of Eriksen for too long. The cameras were out of control of the BBC, who apologised for not returning to the studio sooner.

Extraordinarily, after it was confirmed that Eriksen was in a stable condition the match resumed just over an hour later. Finland would go on to win 1-0.

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