Mini football figure - Denmark

Denmark

The Danish national football team is the Danish Football Association's selection of the best football players. The team has participated five times in World Cups and nine times in European Championships, becoming European champions in 1992.

Before 1979

On 18 April 1897, a Danish selection played in an unofficial match for the first time, contesting it in Hamburg against a selection from Altona. At the 1906 Olympic Intermediate Games in Athens, Denmark won the gold medal. The first official international match played by the Danish national team was a 9-0 victory against France's B team during the 1908 Olympic Games at the White City Stadium in London. Less than three days later, the Danish team won 17:1 against the A-team of France and thus reached the final, in which the Danes lost 0:2 against the hosts. Two years later - on 5 May 1910 - the first international match on Danish soil followed at St Mark's Square in Copenhagen, in which they welcomed England and took revenge with a 2-1 victory. At the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, after defeating Norway and the Netherlands, they again failed to reach the final against England. In the first ten years, a total of 37 matches were played, of which only nine ended in defeat. A further two matches ended in a draw, while the Danish team recorded 26 victories. After the Second World War, the Danes won the bronze medal at the 1948 Olympic Games and the silver medal for the third time in 1960. The fluctuation in performance, or rather the lack of professionalism - at that time profiteering was not allowed in Danish football - was expressed in a match in the late summer of 1961: On 20 September 1961, the Danes met West Germany in Düsseldorf and lost 1:5 to Uwe Seeler's team. The Danish Football Association also resisted profiteering because of the successes at the Olympic Games in 1948 and 1960. In 1969 the first relaxation of the rule followed, before professionals were also allowed to play in the Danish national team from 1971.

Piontek era (1979-1990)

On 1 July 1979, the German and former Bundesliga player Sepp Piontek became the new coach of the Danish national team. After a bumpy start with two defeats in the qualifiers for the 1980 European Championship against England and Bulgaria, Denmark achieved a respectable success under Piontek a short time later with a 3:1 victory over Spain in a test match in Cadiz. Denmark failed to qualify for the European Championship finals in Italy, but the Danish team and the association were confident that the qualifying campaign for the 1982 World Cup would be more successful. However, Sepp Piontek's team started the qualifying campaign with three defeats, but a highlight of the qualifying campaign was the 3-1 away win against the eventual champions Italy. Together with the away win against Spain two years earlier, the success against the Squadra Azzurra was seen as an indication of a successful future for the Danish national team.

In fact, the future really was to get brighter as Denmark qualified for the 1984 European Championships in France after a 1-0 win over the host English at Wembley Stadium in London in 1983. There, the Scandinavians played in a group with the host French, Belgium and Yugoslavia. After a 1-0 defeat in the opening match against France, in which striker Allan Simonsen was also injured and was out for the rest of the tournament, the next matches were successful for the Danish team under the motto "Danish Dynamite": Yugoslavia was defeated 5-0 by goals from Arnesen (two goals), Preben Elkjær Larsen, Berggreen and Lauridsen. In the last and decisive match against the Belgians, a draw would have been enough to enter the semi-finals due to the opponent's worse goal difference, but the Belgians, who knew some Danish players from their own league (for example, Morten Olsen, Kenneth Brylle and Arnesen played for RSC Anderlecht), took a 2-0 lead. However, the Danes managed to turn the game around and won 3:2.

The win qualified the Danes for the semi-finals, where they faced Spain. Denmark took the lead after seven minutes through Søren Lerby. After chances were missed on both sides and the scoreboard read 1-1 after 120 minutes, it came down to a penalty shoot-out, where Preben Elkjær Larsen missed his penalty and Denmark was eliminated.

After successfully qualifying for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and defeating the Soviet Union in front of 50,000 spectators, the Danish national team won its first participation in a World Cup final round. In their opening match, they beat Scotland 1-0, and in their second match they beat Uruguay 6-1. A 2-0 win over West Germany - the first meeting between the two nations since the early 1970s - saw Denmark win their group and face Spain in the last 16, just as they did two years ago at the European Championship finals. There, the Danes took the lead, but a Jesper Olsen misplaced pass was followed by a Spanish equaliser; Emilio Butragueño's four goals, among others, gave the Iberians a 5-1 victory. In qualifying for the 1988 European Championship in West Germany, Denmark had managed to gain entry despite scoring only four of their own goals; however, the Scandinavians only conceded two goals themselves. In the group stage of that final tournament, the Danish national team faced Spain, Italy and West Germany; an over-aged Danish team was eliminated from the tournament after three defeats in three games. This European Championship final round was followed by qualification for the 1990 World Cup in Italy: two draws against Bulgaria and Greece were followed by two victories against the same teams, including a 7-1 win over the Greeks. On 18 June 1989, Morten Olsen, who ended his active career, was retired from the national team, scoring a goal in a 4-0 win over Brazil - it was his 102nd international match. In the last and decisive match against Romania, a point would have been enough to qualify for the World Cup finals in Italy, but despite leading 1-0, Denmark lost 3-1 and missed out on the World Cup. On 2 February 1990, Sepp Piontek announced his retirement on the sidelines of the draw for the qualifying groups for the 1992 European Championship in Sweden.

1992 European Championship title under Møller Nielsen (1990-1996)

Horst Wohlers was considered the favourite to succeed Piontek, but his club Bayer 05 Uerdingen refused to release him. The new coach of the Danish national team was the former national youth coach Richard Møller Nielsen, who had also been Sepp Piontek's co-coach. Hans Bjerg-Pedersen, a connoisseur of Danish football who was also the boss of Lyngby BK, and Jørgen Mikkelsen, a former chairman of Odense BK, had stirred up sentiment against Møller Nielsen before his enthronement. Bjerg-Pedersen recalled a "youth international" between Denmark and Bulgaria, which the Danish team coached by Richard Møller Nielsen lost 7-0, in which Bjerg-Pedersen said that in tactical terms Møller Nielsen was "a pure disaster". His successes as coach of the Olympic team were also put into perspective. The European Championship qualifiers kicked off with a 4-1 win over the Faroe Islands, before a 1-1 draw away to Northern Ireland. Denmark then lost 2-0 to Yugoslavia; the Yugoslavian team had been considered the biggest opponent in the fight for a place at the European Championship. As a result, the Laudrup brothers Michael and Brian withdrew from the national team. Richard Møller Nielsen, who was controversial both in the Danish press and to some extent in the Danish team, then managed a 2-1 victory in the return match against the Yugoslavs on 1 May 1991. Although the remaining matches in the qualification were all won, participation in the final tournament in Sweden was missed by one point. As the group winners from Yugoslavia were excluded from the tournament due to the Yugoslav war, Denmark moved up. Legend has it that the team was brought in from holiday, but the Danish league was in operation until three days before the opening match at the European Championship and on 3 June 1992 the Danish national team played a test match against the CIS in Brøndby. The first match against England was a 0-0 draw - despite a shot against the post by John Jensen - and in the second match against hosts Sweden, the Danes lost 0-1. In the last and decisive match against France, the Danish eleven won 2-1 thanks to a goal by Lars Elstrup, who came on as a substitute for the returning Brian Laudrup, and due to Sweden's victory in the parallel match against England, Denmark advanced to the semi-finals. There the Scandinavians met the tournament favourites from the Netherlands. After 120 minutes, the score was 2-2 and after Marco van Basten missed a penalty and Kim Christofte scored, the Danes reached the final. There they beat the favoured world champions Germany 2-0 with goals from John Jensen and Kim Vilfort, thus surprisingly achieving the Danish national team's greatest success to date as tournament runners-up.

In the qualifiers for the 1994 World Cup, where the opponents were Latvia, Lithuania, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Spain and Albania, they failed by the narrowest of margins after four of twelve games ended in a draw and seven games were won. Ireland had the same goal difference as Denmark (+13). In the qualifying round for the 1996 European Championship, the Danish team played Macedonia, Belgium, Spain, Cyprus and Armenia and qualified for the tournament as one of the best group runners-up. The Danes therefore took part in the 1996 finals in England. "As planned, the opening match against Portugal was a 1-1 draw, but this was followed by a 3-0 defeat by Croatia. In the last and decisive match against Turkey, the Danes won 3:0, but were eliminated due to the result in the parallel match. Richard Møller Nielsen then resigned as national coach.

The period under Bo Johansson and the first Olsen years (1996-2004)

The Danish Football Association appointed the 54-year-old Swede Bo Johansson, a proven judge of character, as his successor. In the qualifiers for the 1998 World Cup, Denmark faced Slovenia, Greece, as well as Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina at the 1996 European Championship finals. The Danish team only managed to qualify for the 1998 World Cup in France on the last matchday, after a 0-0 draw against Greece in front of 77,000 spectators in Athens and an outstanding performance by goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel. After three defeats to Norway (0-2), Sweden (0-3) and Cameroon (1-2) in the test matches before the final tournament, Denmark started the tournament with a 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia with a goal from Marc Rieper. After a 1-1 draw against South Africa in their second match, Denmark lost the decisive match against hosts France 2-1, but it was enough for them to reach the last 16. In the last 16, Denmark beat Nigeria 4-1 after goals from Peter Møller, Brian Laudrup, substitute Ebbe Sand and Thomas Helveg. In the quarter-finals, they faced defending champions Brazil and, after Martin Jørgensen had taken a quick lead for the resilient Danes, the Brazilians managed to turn the game around before Brian Laudrup scored to make it 2-2. In the end, Brazil won 3-2, but the Danes were eliminated with their heads held high.

In the following European Championship qualifiers, the opponents were Belarus, Wales, Switzerland and Italy. After the European Championship 2000 in the Netherlands and Belgium, for which the Danes qualified via relegation against Israel and where they were eliminated after the group stage - the opponents were the reigning world champions France, co-hosts the Netherlands and the Czech Republic - Morten Olsen took over as national coach. He then led the Danish national team through the qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup and in the preliminary round they faced Iceland, Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, Malta and the Czech Republic. The Danes managed to win their group. At the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, Jon Dahl Tomasson and Ebbe Sand formed the attack. Denmark won their group with a 2-0 win over world champions France and reached the last 16, where they were eliminated by England with a 3-0 defeat. At the European Championship two years later in Portugal - Denmark met Luxembourg, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as Norway in the qualifiers and won their group - the Danish team started with a goalless draw against Italy, but won the second match against Bulgaria 2-0. In the last match against Sweden, a draw from 2-2 would have been enough for both teams to enter the quarter-finals. In this match, Denmark led 2-1 until shortly before the end, before Mattias Jonsson equalised for the Swedes and both teams thus actually entered the quarter-finals. The match was controversially discussed in the Italian public before and after the match. In the quarter-finals, Denmark lost 3-0 to the Czech Republic and were eliminated.

Another eleven years under Morten Olsen (2004-2015)

In the qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup, Denmark faced Ukraine, Albania, Turkey, Georgia, Greece and Kazakhstan and missed out on the World Cup in Germany, finishing third in their group. Nevertheless, Morten Olsen remained national coach and led the Danish team through the qualification for the European Championship, where the opponents were Iceland, Northern Ireland, Liechtenstein, Spain, Sweden and Latvia. Partly because of the match in Copenhagen against Sweden, which was abandoned in the 89th minute with the score at 3:3 - the match was rated 0:3 for Sweden at the green table - Denmark finished fourth in the group and thus missed the European Championship finals in Austria and Switzerland. Regardless, Olsen remained in office and accompanied Denmark through the qualification for the 2010 World Cup, where the opponents were Hungary, Portugal, Malta, Albania and Sweden again, and qualified for the tournament in South Africa as group winners ahead of the Portuguese. There, the Danes were eliminated after the group stage, after only the second group match against Cameroon was won (2:1) and the other group matches - the first against the Netherlands and the last against Japan - ended in defeat (0:2 against the Netherlands and 1:3 against Japan). The qualifiers for the 2012 European Championship were followed by clashes with Iceland, Portugal again, Norway and Cyprus, and once again the Danes finished top of their group ahead of the Portuguese after beating the Lusitanians 2-1 on the final matchday in Copenhagen. At the European Championship finals in Poland and Ukraine, Denmark faced the runners-up from the Netherlands, qualifying opponents Portugal and World Cup bronze medallists Germany in the group stage. Despite a surprising victory against the Netherlands at the start of the tournament, Denmark was eliminated after the group matches. In the qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup, Denmark played against the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, runners-up Italy, Armenia and Malta. After two defeats - including a 4-0 home loss to Armenia - and three draws and three wins each, they faced the Italians in Copenhagen on the penultimate matchday and only a win would secure a chance to participate in the play-off matches. After trailing at one stage, Denmark led 2-1 until injury time before the Italians equalised. Denmark, as the worst group runner-up, ultimately missed out on participation in the World Cup in Brazil. In the qualifiers for the 2016 European Championship, Denmark met Armenia again and played matches against Albania, Portugal and Serbia. After only one defeat and a draw against Albania, as well as two wins, the Danish team had a good starting position and occupied one of the two places that entitled them to direct qualification for the European Championship finals in France. But after two draws against Albania and Armenia and a defeat in the last match against the Portuguese, Denmark slipped down to third place and had to play the elimination matches against Sweden, where they lost out with a 1-2 away defeat and a 2-2 draw in front of their home crowd and thus missed out on the tournament. Morten Olsen then resigned as national coach after 15 years in charge.

Present (since 2016)

His successor was the Norwegian Åge Hareide. In the qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup, in which the opponents were Armenia for the third time in a row as well as Poland, Montenegro, Kazakhstan and Romania, Denmark finished second in the table with 20 points and qualified for the World Cup finals via the elimination matches against Ireland. In the second leg in front of 51,700 spectators in Dublin, the Danish team was initially 1-0 down but eventually won the match 5-1. At the finals in Russia, the Danes reached the last 16 after finishing second in a group with Peru, Australia and eventual world champions France, where they were eliminated on penalties by eventual finalists Croatia. In the qualifiers for the Europe-wide European Championship, scheduled for 2020, the opponents were Switzerland as well as Ireland, Gibraltar and Georgia. A 1-1 draw in the final match against the Irish qualified Denmark for the European Championship finals, which were postponed until 2021 due to the COVID 19 pandemic; in the meantime, Åge Hareide's contract expired and Kasper Hjulmand became his successor. The group opponents were Finland as well as Belgium and Russia and all three group matches were played at home in Copenhagen. In the opening match against the European Championship newcomers from Finland, the Danes lost 0:1, a game overshadowed by the collapse of their captain Christian Eriksen. In the second group match against the Belgians, the Danes took an early 1-0 lead through a goal by Yussuf Poulsen, but lost 2-1. In the final and decisive group match, Denmark needed a win of their own and a defeat by the Finns in the parallel match against Belgium to qualify safely for the last 16 as group runners-up. The Danish team won 4:1 and as Finland lost 0:1 in the parallel match, Danish Dynamite qualified for the round of 16. In that match, played at the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam, the Danish national team faced Wales and won 4-0 before facing the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals in Baku, Azerbaijan. Denmark won 2-1 to qualify for a semi-final for the first time since 1992, when they won the title at the 1992 European Championship in Sweden, and their opponents were England at Wembley Stadium in London. In this match, the Danes took a 1-0 lead through a Mikkel Damsgaard free-kick, but conceded a Simon Kjær own goal to make it 1-1 and the match went into extra time. In the 103rd minute, England were awarded what the public thought was a questionable penalty, which Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel initially managed to keep out, but England striker Harry Kane scored on the follow-up shot and Denmark ultimately lost 2-1 after extra time.

In the meantime, the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup were underway and Denmark faced Israel, Moldova, Austria, Scotland and the Faroe Islands. With nine wins and only one defeat, Denmark qualified for the controversial World Cup finals in Qatar.

Denmark at the Olympic Games

In the early years, the Danish team was very successful at the Olympic Games. At the unofficial Games in 1906, Denmark, represented by a Copenhagen city selection, won the gold medal, in 1908, 1912 and 1960 silver and in 1948 the bronze medal. In 1972 they reached the intermediate round once again. The Danish senior national team was one of the few Western European senior teams that continued to participate in the Olympic Games or the qualifying matches for them until the 1980s. For example, record-breaking international Peter Schmeichel played eight qualifying matches for the Olympic Games in 1987 and 1988, which are no longer recognised as senior internationals by FIFA but are counted by the DBU. He is therefore listed in the FIFA statistics with 121 international matches.