Victory against all odds
Denmark failed to qualify for the European Championships of
1992, held in Sweden, but they were given a reprieve when asked to replace
war-torn Yugoslavia after their omission from the tournament finals.
It was the last Euro Championships to feature only 8 teams
before the expansion of the competition and the last to award 2 points for a
win; Euro ’92 was also played shortly before the introduction of the ‘back-pass
rule’.
Yugoslavia got eliminated from the tournament due to the
civil war situation developing in their country, which affected the Yugoslavian
FA’s ability to govern football there. Denmark came second in Yugoslavia’s
qualifying group and UEFA chose the host’s Scandinavian neighbours to fill the
void.
It had been a turbulent qualifying campaign for the Danes,
as after three matches the brothers Laudrup (Michael and Brian) fell out with
coach Neilsen and opted to withdraw their playing services from the national
team. There followed a disciplinary matter involving other stars Jan Mølby and Jan Heintze that resulted in the
two being omitted from the Danish set-up by the under-fire head coach. The
media were clamouring for his sacking and that didn’t cease despite five wins
on the trot to end the campaign with at least some pride intact.
The situation looked bleak with only the top team in the
group able to qualify for the finals, but the unexpected opportunity to replace
the Yugoslavia came as a last-minute surprise allowing Denmark to compete. Of
course, from a human point of view, the Danes would not have wanted to gain
entry into Euro ’92 in such circumstances. However, no team would have passed
up a chance to play in the championships whatever the background to it.
The rumour goes that the Danish FA were practically dragging
players off the holiday beaches of the world to get them into training after the
announcement was made just 10 days before the start of the Euros. It wasn’t
quite like that however, as the players had a pre-tournament friendly with the
CIS (former Soviet Union) to play before heading off on holiday. The squad
members believed their season to be nearly over, though, so mentally they had
little time to focus before they had to cancel/postpone their vacations and
concentrate on a major tournament they thought they were out of!
Brain Laudrup came back into the fold in April 1992 and
along with Peter Schmeichel and his solid defence, the Danes embarked on a
journey that was to last far longer than they’d dared to hope! The Danish squad
had to be submitted by June 4th and the 20 players that were selected
were as follows: Schmeichel, Sivebæk, Kent Nielsen, Olsen, Andersen,
Christofte, Jensen, Johnny Mølby, Povlsen, Elstrup, Brain Laudrup, Piechnik,
Larsen, Frank, Arensøe, Krogh, Christiansen, Vilfort, Peter Nielsen, Bruun.
It was a tough group they were drawn in with hosts Sweden,
England and France being the other sides to make up Group A. Playing with Richard
Møller Nielsen’s heavily-criticised defensive style, the ‘Danish Dynamite’ started
with a creditable 0-0 draw with England. Things looked to be on the wane early
on when Sweden’s Tomas Brolin struck to snatch a 1-0 victory over the Danes in
the second game to go top of the group.
So, needing a win to advance in the third match, Denmark
beat the French
2-1 in Malmö thanks to goals from Pisa striker Henrik Larsen, who was on loan
at Lyngby at the time, and substitute Lars Elstrup. The Danes took an early lead,
only to be pegged back by superstar Jean-Pierre Papin, before Elstrup struck
with 12 minutes remaining to seal a famous victory and second spot in the group
ahead of favourites England and France. Hosts Sweden made it a Scandinavian
double by topping the group to make it through to the semi-finals.
An unlikely fairytale story began to develop, but surely the
reigning champions Holland would see to it that the Danes would be dumped out
at the semi-final stage?
The match ended 2-2 after an 86th minute equaliser from
Frank Rijkaard denied the Danes victory in normal time. Rejuvenated striker
Larssen scored a double to firstly bring the scores level after Dennis Bergkamp
had put the ‘Oranje’ into the lead, before nudging his nation into the lead
just after the half-hour mark. It appeared enough to win, but Rijkaard had
other ideas and so it came down to penalties to decide the fate of the Euro ’88
winners and the Euro ’92 underdogs Denmark.
Incredibly, star striker Marco Van Basten failed from the spot for
the Netherlands, while Denmark scored 5 out of 5 to go on to the final. The
pressure on the kick-takers must have been immense, but it was the rank
outsiders that collectively kept their cool to reach the Gothenburg showpiece
against either Sweden or Germany.
Stockholm played host to the other semi which produced an exciting
encounter, with the German machine proving just too good for the host nation in
a 3-2 win for the ‘Nationalmannschaft’. Germany would now face Denmark for what
appeared to be a real David v Goliath clash at the impressive Ullevi stadium.
Germany were massive favourites to win the trophy and practically no-one
outside of Denmark gave the tournament dark horses any hope of winning. Remarkably
and against all odds, the Danes rallied one more time to put the Germans to the
sword with a 2-0 win elevating the Danes to the title of European Champions.
A fantastic strike from John Jensen from outside the area in the
first half set them on their way before Kim Vilfort finished the match as a
contest with a second goal on 78 minutes. The Jensen strike made the whole day
even more magical, as he wasn’t renowned for scoring goals from that holding
midfield position he occupied. 38,000 fans looked on as the competition winners
strode up to the podium to receive the Henri Delauney trophy as Champions of
Europe 1992.
One of the Danish stars of the tournament was Henrik Larsen, who
ended as joint-top scorer alongside Riedle, Bergkamp and Brolin. He’d had a
hard time in Italy with Pisa and been loaned back to former club Lyngby, before
helping them to the Danish league title and his country to European glory both
in the same year.
No comments:
Post a Comment