England beware – Denmark were the underdogs in 1992 as well

England beware – Denmark, a team who were underdogs in 1992 yet went on to win the tournament

England versus Denmark is the big semi-final match coming up on Wednesday evening, July 7, being played at Wembley Stadium in London, in front of an anticipated 60,000 passionate football fans, with a place in the final of Euro 2020 at stake, against either Spain or Italy.

But, England should beware, Denmark probably come into this match as underdogs, but it won’t bother them, if they take inspiration from another team of underdogs who became European champions back in Sweden in 1992, under bizarre circumstances, when, after they had failed to qualify, Denmark were called up at one week’s notice to replace Yugoslavia in the tournament.

In their opening game, they actually played England, which ended in a goalless draw, followed by a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Sweden, which meant they went into their final match needed to win – against France!

France at that time had their usual supply of big stars, including Jean-Pierre Papin, and Eric Cantona, although the Danes had their share of rising stars, with a young Peter Schmeichel in goal, Brian Laudrup in midfield, and the amazing Henrik Larsen up front.

An incredible upset saw Denmark beat France 2-1, which sent them through to the semi-final where they would meet reigning European champions Holland, with Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Ronald Koeman, and Dennis Bergkamp, and a 2-2 draw saw the game go to penalties, with the Danes winning 5-4 on pens to set up a final against Germany, who had beaten Sweden in the other semi-final.

A final against Germany was a huge game in anybody’s book, but for the Danes, one would guess they had nothing to lose, but coming off the back of victories over France and Holland then I guess they must have given themselves some belief that they could go that one last step, and so they did, beating the Germans 2-0 to lift the European trophy.

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