Belgium turned on the afterburners in the second half to come back from behind against Denmark to win their 2020 European Championship group stage encounter.
Yussuf Poulsen scored early in the first half to give Denmark an early lead, but Kevin De Bruyne’s heroics in the second half meant that Belgium registered their second successive win of the tournament.
The Manchester City man came off the bench after the halftime interval and caused the Danish defenders – who had looked to be on top of the match until then – all sorts of problems.
De Bruyne helped the Red Devils get their equalizer in the 55th minute when he set up Thorgan Hazard, after a blistering counter-attack that was Belgium’s first meaningful attack of the game.
De Bruyne turned the match on its head and sent his team ahead 15 minutes later with a calmly slotted left-footed strike past Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.
Romelu Lukaku, Youri Tielemans and Eden Hazard exchanged passes in a neat passage of play and when Hazard laid it off for De Bruyne, the Belgian midfielder wrapped his left foot around the ball to complete the turnaround.
De Bruyne had not featured in any match since going off injured against Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League final but made up for all the lost time in his first appearance in this year’s European Championship.
Belgium looked like a completely different side as the virtuoso midfielder put on a 45-minute masterclass after he came on as a half-time substitute at the Parken Arena.
The influential De Bruyne brought the wow factor with his introduction, as he hopes to push Belgium’s golden generation to uncharted peaks.
Check out the highlights of KDB’s second-half clinic against Denmark below –
