Off the Pitch: Euro 2020 – day 4

The fourth day of Euro 2020 was also full of drama and conflict. There was also good news about

, who suffered cardiac arrest during the game against Finland. From

urging everyone to drink water by pushing aside Coca-Cola bottles, to UEFA suggesting TV directors have some common sense and Austria forward Marko Arnautovic apologizing for his profanity, day 4 was just full of angry people as everyone had something to complain about.

Euro 2020 – Day 4 Review

Here is everything that you might have missed from yesterday.

Christian Eriksen is well and smiling

Kasper Schmeichel got to visit his national team pal Christian Eriksen in hospital and brought good news to everyone. The

midfielder suffered a shockingly sudden cardiac arrest during Denmark’s clash against Finland, after which Schmeichel and team captain Simon Kjaer rushed to his aid before everyone and later consoled his wife on the sidelines.

Having seen how Eriksen was doing, the 34-year-old

goalkeeper said the following about his teammate: “It was damn nice to see him smile and laugh and be himself. Just to notice that he is there. It was a wonderful experience and something that has helped me see that he was ok after lying there.”

He also went on to add “Personally, I tried to imagine if it was me who was lying there. I knew Christian’s wife, children and parents were there, so at one point I tried to look for them. We need to try to turn this into something positive, into something motivating. And we must remember that there is something positive in this. It’s that Christian’s alive.”

Take this filthy drink away!

You can’t be one of the most in-shape athletes in the world who’s trained all their life and not grow a resentment against high-sugar cola drinks. So that’s why we saw Cristiano Ronaldo angrily remove Coca-Cola bottles that were put in front of him during a press conference. After removing the Coke bottles, the 36-year-old Portuguese superstar went on to shout “drink water” instead as he didn’t look to happy to see such high-sugar drinks on the table.

Coca-Cola are official sponsors of Euro 2020, but it seems that the Juventus striker did not agree with promoting bad habits and harmful diets.

will be getting their title defense as current European Champions underway today against Hungary, and fans will definitely count on Ronaldo to deliver a world-class performance once again with his top-notch level of fitness.

Cristiano Ronaldo, who is on the verge of breaking the world record for most international goals scored, made his international debut at way back in 2003 at the age of 18 years and 6 months old. Since then, he has made a total of 175 appearances, scoring a phenomenal 104 goals and providing a respectable 40 assists in the process. He personally believes that winning the Euro 2016 was and is the greatest achievement of his life, showing how much he loves his country.

Have some common sense mate

It seems a bit odd that the authorities have had to say this out loud and warn actual people, but UEFA did in fact have to tell TV directors to have some “common sense” and refrain from recording and airing serious injuries after the director in charge of the match between Denmark and Finland continued zooming in on the horrific scenes of the medical team reviving Christian Eriksen, which surely upset thousands spectating the match and the viewers who were watching the game online or on TV.

Many actually did complain about the intrusive coverage of such scenes, but UEFA has only opted for a mere suggestion to use common sense instead of passing any emergency regulations.

Arnautovic’s possible words of racism

international and former West Ham forward Marko Arnautovic has apologized for shouting “I’m F-ing your Albanian mother” in Serbian. Such a profanity came during the forward’s goal celebration against North Macedonia. The slur was so bad that the Austrian national team captain

had to rush in and firmly hold Arnautovic’s jaw to stop him from saying anything further. But the forward was unstoppable as he uttered such hateful words. The Austrian was later accused of racism, an allegation that he was quick to deny.

The slur was reportedly aimed at Ezgjan Alioski, with whom Arnautovic had a heated confrontation. The forward has narrowly escaped an £8,000 fine, but fans have been calling for UEFA to firmly ban the 32-year-old. Of course Arnautovic went on to deny being racist after issuing an apology on social media, claiming that he has friends in almost every country and he stands for diversity.

But what was the reason behind such a bad slur being uttered by the Austrian? Well, according to reports, the reason for the slur appears to relate to the Kosovo War, in which Albania battled with Serbia over the Kosovo region.  With Alioski seemingly able to speak Albanian, Arnautovic, whose father is Serbian, used his chance to come back at the North Macedonian player.

It is not the only time football players get in trouble for such shenanigans over political beliefs as Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka also got in trouble for a similar matter in a match against Serbia back in 2018. The two footballers, who have Albanian links, celebrated in a strange manner as they put their hands together. This in turn formed a double-headed eagle, which can be seen on an Albanian flag.

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