Soccer

Andreas Cornelius strikes twice as Denmark stun France in Nations League

Round-up: Ralf Rangnick’s Austria beat Croatia 3-0; Netherlands bash Belgium in Brussels

Denmark's forward Andreas Cornelius celebrates with team-mates after scoring two goals in the Nations League victory over France at the Stade de France. Photograph: Geoffroy Van der Hasselt/AFP via Getty Images
Denmark's forward Andreas Cornelius celebrates with team-mates after scoring two goals in the Nations League victory over France at the Stade de France. Photograph: Geoffroy Van der Hasselt/AFP via Getty Images
Sat Jun 04 2022 - 10:57

Andreas Cornelius’s second-half double stunned France as Denmark won 2-1 at the Stade de France in their opening Nations League game on Friday night.

The Trabzonspor striker cancelled out Karim Benzema’s second-half opener for France with a neat 68th-minute finish and lashed in the winner with two minutes to go.

Denmark sit behind early group A1 leaders Austria, who opened their campaign with an impressive 3-0 win in Croatia in new head coach Ralf Rangnick’s first game in charge.

Former West Ham striker Marko Arnautovic gave Austria a half-time lead before second-half goals from Michael Gregoritsch and Marcel Sabitzer sealed victory against the 2018 World Cup finalists.

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Belgium’s opening group A4 encounter ended in an emphatic 4-1 defeat by the Netherlands in Brussels.

Tottenham winger Steven Bergwijn’s long-range effort gave the Dutch an interval lead and Memphis Depay’s brilliant double in the space of six second-half minutes put them 3-0 up.

Denzel Dumfries added a fourth before Michy Batshuayi headed a stoppage-time consolation for a poor Belgium team.

Tomas Suslov scored the only goal as Slovakia made a winning start against group C3 rivals Belarus in Novi Sad, Serbia.

Kazakhstan got their group C3 campaign off to a flying start as two second-half goals from Abat Aymbetov secured them a 2-0 home win against Azerbaijan.

Latvia forward Roberts Uldrikis also scored twice, in either half, in his side’s opening group D1 win against Andorra in Riga, with Janis Ikaunieks’s late penalty sealing a 3-0 success.

Group rivals Moldova won 2-0 in Liechtenstein thanks to Ion Nicolaescu’s early penalty and Vadim Bolohan’s late effort.