“Against my idol…” Rasmus Højlund addresses Cristiano Ronaldo celebration after Denmark heroics

Manchester United forward Rasmus Højlund scored the winning goal for Denmark against Portugal in the first-leg of their Nations League quarter-final clash.

Strikers are extremely strange creatures, aren’t they?

Rasmus Højlund was on a 21-game goalless run for Manchester United and things weren’t going much better at international level with him being without a goal in 13 matches.

Yet, less than a week after the Danish international finally scored a goal for Ruben Amorim’s side, he did the same for his country to give them a crucial lead against Portugal.

Diogo Dalot and Bruno Fernandes started the game for Portugal while Christian Eriksen started for Denmark. Højlund and Patrick Dorgu were on the bench.

But the 22-year-old striker was brought on and managed to find himself in the right place at the right time late on in the game to score the winning goal and give Brian Riemer’s side the advantage going into the second-leg.

Højlund has been trying to get his own celebration off the ground this season, but for this goal he decided to bring out the iconic “siuu” celebration against Cristiano Ronaldo himself.

Højlund addresses Ronaldo celebration after Denmark heroics

The celebration has been used against Ronaldo several times in recent years and it is almost always due to admiration for him.

That was the case for Højlund, who described the Portuguese and United legend as his “idol” after full-time.

United’s no.9 believes that it was a perfect script for him to come on and score the winner against his favourite ever player.

“It was great. It was a great day in many ways,” Højlund smiled when speaking to TV2 after the game.

“I play against my idol and score and win the match. It couldn’t have been written much better.”

United need Højlund to return with confidence

Højlund has one more game against Portugal before he returns to England and it seems like he will be set to start that one after scoring the winner on Thursday evening.

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As mentioned earlier, centre-forwards are strange and largely confidence driven. We have previous seen Højlund go through such hot-streaks.

Last season, after not scoring in his opening 14 Premier League appearances, Højlund netted in six games in a row.

Amorim and United need the Dane to be full of confidence when he returns to action and that could help the team in the final stretch of the season.

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