Manchester United striker Rasmus Hojlund was on the receiving end of some rough challenges on Tuesday night.

Hojlund – who cost United a transfer fee of £72 million in August when he signed from Atalanta in Italy – made his ninth senior international appearance for Denmark in a Euro 2024 qualifier away to San Marino.

The 20-year-old scored a superb opener – his seventh goal for Denmark – in a 2-1 win.

Hojlund also won four free-kicks for Denmark as San Marino seemingly attempted to unsettle the striker with some aggressive tactics.

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The worst foul of the game came in the 88th minute when San Marino defender Roberto Di Maio thrust his left knee into Hojlund’s back.

Di Maio was shown a yellow card – a decision that Hojlund described as “a joke” in a post-match interview on Danish TV.

Meanwhile, quotes attributed to Denmark captain Simon Kjaer accused San Marino’s players of deliberately trying to injure Hojlund.

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Kjaer – who plays his club soccer for AC Milan – is said to have overheard San Marino players saying in Italian that they were targeting Hojlund’s knees.

Kjaer: “It clearly had to be a red card. It was 100% intentional and I think Neymar has also been kneed in the back like that (WC 2014). San Marino players said they would continue to target Hojlund’s knee after that situation. I reported to the referee, I asked him if he needed me to translate.”

Hojlund later confirmed this as well. “They were targeting me today, as you could see at the end,” he said. I understand Italian and I could hear them saying they intended to traumatize me. You can see from the returned images, that he had an idea in mind. Yellow card is just a joke”

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Looking back at the situation, this is clearly a situation of intentional bad play, worthy of a red card. Hojlund just returned from a back injury at Man United.