The first leg of the quarterfinals of the UEFA Nations League brought several unexpected surprises. On one side, Croatia managed to beat France… and Denmark did the same against Portugal. A victory against all odds in which Rasmus Højlund, a forward for Manchester United and a huge admirer of Cristiano Ronaldo, was the hero of the match.

Højlund celebrated like Cristiano

Rasmus Højlund came on to the field with 20 minutes remaining in the match, replacing Mika Biereth, who made his official debut after deciding to play for Denmark. However, it didn’t take him even 10 minutes to score his seventh goal with Denmark in 22 games… finishing off a brilliant collective play from inside the box, assisted by Skov Olsen.

Naturally, he went completely crazy, and while heading to one of the corners of the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, he dared to imitate Cristiano Ronaldo's iconic celebration right in his face. A scene that Cristiano Ronaldo observed from afar… while he continued to look for answers about how Portugal was losing to Denmark.

Did Højlund provoke Cristiano?

Immediately, social media began speculating that Rasmus Højlund’s celebration was a provocation toward Cristiano Ronaldo. However, he denied it as soon as he was asked about it: “Cristiano Ronaldo is my idol. I wasn’t mocking him. He had a great impact on me as a person and in my football career. Scoring against him and Portugal is huge.”

Højlund had to clarify this… despite having always openly shown his admiration for Cristiano Ronaldo: “Cristiano means everything to me, and I fell in love with football because of him. I became a fan of Manchester United and started training on my own because I wanted to be like Cristiano,” Højlund said when he became a new player for Manchester United.