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Denmark National Football Team

Head coach: Morten Olsen
Captain: Jon Dahl Tomasson
Top scorer: Poul "Tist" Nielsen
FIFA ranking: 27

The Denmark national football team is controlled by the Danish Football Association and has represented the country of Denmark in international football competitions since 1908. The team has been a solidly competitive side in international football since the mid-1980s, with the triumph in the 1992 European Championships (Euro 1992) tournament as its most prominent victory.

In the qualification to Euro 2008, Denmark are placed in Group F with Liechtenstein, Northern Ireland, Iceland, Latvia, Spain and the archrivals from Sweden.

Apart from the men's senior team, Denmark competes with a women's national team, and has teams at various youth levels for both men and women, most prominently the under-21 national team. Additionally, there is a league national team, or B-team, of the best players from the domestic Danish Superliga, playing official games in the winter break of the national league, as well as an old-boys national team. Historically, the team competed in the Summer Olympics until and including the 1988 tournament, whereafter Olympic games count as under-21 national games.

Denmark won an unofficial victory in the 1906 Intercalated Olympics,[1] and finished second in their first official tournament, the 1908 Olympics, an achievement copied four years later in the 1912 Olympics. Although Denmark figured fairly prominently in the pre-World Cup era, international success would elude them for years from the first World Cup in 1930 and forward. Despite the country's ability to produce outstanding footballing talent, a bronze medal in the 1948 Olympics was the only result of note in 50 years. As football remained an amateur pastime, most of the best Danish footballers moved abroad to make a living,[2] and foreign-based professionals were barred from the national team, in common with other Scandinavian countries.

In the 1960s, Denmark had a revival with a third set of Olympic silver at the 1960 Olympics, though the most notable performance was fourth place in the Euro 1964. Denmark took advantage of a comparatively easy draw, as they beat Malta, Albania and Luxembourg before losing to the USSR in the semi-final and Hungary in the bronze match. The national team rule of amateurism was abolished in 1971, which led to a vast improvement in the Danish team's performances. In 1978, professional football was introduced to the Danish leagues, which prompted the first sponsorship of the national team by Danish brewery Carlsberg, enabling the team to hire full-time coach Sepp Piontek from Germany in 1979.[2]

In the 1982 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Denmark finished with 8 points from as many games, including a 3-1 win against eventual World Cup champions Italy, but Denmark failed to qualify for the final tournament despite the impressive result. Qualification for the Euro 1984 saw the team beat England at Wembley Stadium when Allan Simonsen converted a penalty kick for a 1-0 win. Denmark qualified for their first international tournament since 1964, and the team was dubbed "Danish Dynamite" in a competition for the official Danish Euro 1984 song.[2] Denmark's participation ended in the semi-final when the team lost on penalties to Spain, most remembered for Preben Elkjær's penalty miss, his shorts torn apart. Following the strong performance at the finals, the name of "Danish Dynamite" became a mainstay for the following decade of Danish national team football under coach Piontek.

Denmark made their first World Cup appearance in the 1986 FIFA World Cup, and with the attacking duo of Michael Laudrup and Preben Elkjær the team surprised the world, sweeping the group, including a 6-1 thrashing of Uruguay. In the second round Denmark once again faced Spain, and once more Denmark lost out. The team received a trashing of their own, losing 5-1, including four goals by Emilio Butragueño. The first Spanish goal was caused by a miss-timed backpass by Jesper Olsen to Butragueño, an unfortunate action subsequently coined as "a real Jesper Olsen" (en rigtig Jesper Olsen). The phrase would live on for 13 years when an identical backpass was carried out by Jesper Grønkjær to Filippo Inzaghi in Grønkjær's 1999 debut game.[3]

After the glory days of 1986 came a period of transition with faltering results. The Euro 1988 tournament ended in early defeat as Denmark lost the group games to Spain, Germany, and Italy. When Denmark failed to qualify for the 1990 FIFA World Cup Sepp Piontek was replaced by his assistant coach Richard Møller Nielsen.

POS

Denmark Team
No.	NAME	H(M)	W(Kg)	Age
-	Stephan Andersen	G	1.91	82	25
1	Thomas Sorensen	G	1.96	89	31
16	Jesper Christiansen	G	1.91	85	29
-	Kasper Bogelund	D	1.80	77	26
2	Lars Jacobsen	D	1.81	76	27
3	Martin Laursen	D	1.91	83	29
4	Daniel Agger	D	1.89	80	22
5	Niclas Jensen	D	1.80	82	32
12	Michael Gravgaard	D	1.87	85	29
12	Leon Andreasen	D	1.77	72	24
13	Brian Priske	D	1.88	76	30
2	Christian Poulsen	M	1.82	76	27
6	Daniel Jensen	M	1.80	73	27
8	Jesper Gronkjaer	M	1.81	70	29
10	Martin Jorgensen	M	1.80	76	31
14	Thomas Kahlenberg	M	1.83	72	24
14	Michael Silberbauer	M	1.83	75	25
15	Rasmus Wurtz	M	1.79	68	23
17	Jan Kristiansen	M	1.80	73	26
17	Dennis Sorensen	M	1.93	84	26
7	Dennis Rommedahl	S	1.78	68	28
9	Jon Dahl Tomasson	S	1.80	74	30
11	Nicklas Bendtner	S	1.91	78	19
18	Morten Duncan Rasmussen	S	1.85	77	22

Group F
	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA	GD	P
Sweden	7	6	0	1	17	4	13	18
Spain	7	5	0	2	13	6	7	15
Northern Ireland	6	4	1	1	10	7	3	13
Denmark	6	3	1	2	9	5	4	10
Liechtenstein	7	1	1	5	4	18	-14	4
Iceland	7	1	1	5	5	15	-10	4
Latvia	6	1	0	5	4	7	-3	3