Danish national football team / World Championships

Denmark
Kongeriget Danmark

World Cup record goalscorer:	Jon Dahl Tomasson (5)
World Cup record players:	Martin Jørgensen (11)
Rank :	23
Balance sheet
19 World Cup games 9 wins 5 draws 6 defeats 30:26 goals
statistics
First World Cup game Denmark 1-0 Scotland Nezahualcóyotl ( MEX ); 4th June 1986
Biggest World Cup victory Denmark 6: 1 Uruguay Nezahualcóyotl ( MEX ); June 8, 1986
Biggest World Cup defeat Denmark 1: 5 Spain Querétaro ( MEX ); June 13, 1986
successes
World Championship
Participation in the finals	5 ( first : 1986 )
Best results	Quarterfinals ( 1998 )
Best placements in the countries that host the FIFA World Cup
(As of June 26, 2018 )

The article contains a detailed description of the Danish national football team at world championships . Denmark participated for the fifth time in 2018.

overview

year	Host country	Participation until ...	Last opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1930	Uruguay	not participated
1934	Italy	not participated
1938	France	not participated
1950	Brazil	not participated
1954	Switzerland	not participated
1958	Sweden	not qualified				In the qualification of England failed
1962	Chile	not participated
1966	England	not qualified				In the qualification of the USSR failed
1970	Mexico	not qualified				Failed in the qualification at the ČSSR
1974	Germany	not qualified				In the qualification of Scotland failed
1978	Argentina	not qualified				Failed in the qualification to Poland
1982	Spain	not qualified				In the qualification of Yugoslavia and Italy failed
1986	Mexico	Round of 16	Spain	9.	Josef Piontek
1990	Italy	not qualified				In the qualification of Romania failed
1994	United States	not qualified				In the qualification of Spain and Ireland failed
1998	France	Quarter finals	Brazil	8th.	Bo Johansson
2002	South Korea / Japan	Round of 16	England	10.	Morten Olsen
2006	Germany	not qualified				In the qualification of the Ukraine and Turkey failed, Turkey then failed in the play-offs.
2010	South Africa	Preliminary round	Netherlands , Cameroon , Japan	24.	Morten Olsen
2014	Brazil	not qualified				In the qualification of Italy failed. As the worst runners-up in the group, Denmark did not qualify for the playoff round of the eight best runners-up in the group, in which four further World Cup places were awarded.
2018	Russia	Round of 16	Croatia	11.	Åge Hareide	Defeat on penalties .

Statistics (data including 2018: 21 World Championships; percentages are rounded)

• Not participated: 6 × (29%; 1930, 1934, 1938, 1950, 1950, 1962)
• Not qualified: 10 × (48%; 1958, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1990, 1994, 2006 and 2014)
• Athletic qualification: 5 × (24% or 33% of the attempts)
  • Preliminary round: 1 × (5%; 2010)
  • Round of 16: 3 × (14%; 1986, 2002 and 2014)
  • Quarter-finals: 1 × (5%; 1998)

World Cup tournaments

1930 to 1954

The Danish team had started international matches in 1908 and reached the finals at the 1908 and 1912 Olympics, but like many European teams, they did not take part in the first World Cup. Denmark also did not take part in the four subsequent World Championships.

1958 in Sweden

Denmark wanted to qualify for the World Cup in Sweden for the first time and had to play against England and Ireland . On October 3, 1956, Denmark played their first World Cup qualifier and lost 2-1. With the connection goal to 1: 2 in the 86th minute, Aage Jensen scored the first qualifying goal for the Danes. Since the other three games were also lost, the Danes were eliminated as third in the group.

1962 in Chile

Once again the Danish association decided not to participate.

1966 in England

The qualification for the World Cup in England had Denmark against the USSR , Wales and Greece deny. Denmark succeeded in their first game on October 21, 1964 in Copenhagen with a 1-0 win against Wales, their first victory in a World Cup qualifier with a goal from Ole Madsen . This was followed by four defeats and only in the 1-1 draw against Greece did another point win. This means that Denmark was eliminated as the bottom of the group.

1970 in Mexico

Denmark was again unable to qualify for the first World Cup in Central America . The Czechoslovakia and Hungary were stronger, which faced each other at the end in a playoff for the World Championship course. Only Ireland was this time even weaker than Denmark, which did not finish last in the group for the first time.

1974 in the Federal Republic of Germany

The Danes could not qualify for the World Cup in the neighboring country . Scotland , which qualified, and Czechoslovakia were in the group of three, ahead of Denmark.

1978 in Argentina

Denmark could not qualify for the fourth World Cup in South America either and had to give way to the Poles . But also Portugal was still ahead of Denmark, which could only win the two games against Cyprus .

1982 in Spain

Denmark did not qualify for the World Cup in Spain either . Yugoslavia and Italy were stronger and only Greece and Luxembourg ended up behind Denmark. After all, the first win against the Italian senior team was in qualifying.

1986 in Mexico

The qualification for the second World Cup in Mexico was finally successful. Denmark had already reached the semi-finals by surprise at the European Championship in 1984 . Sepp Piontek , who took over the position of national coach for the Danes in 1979, had built a team around Morten Olsen , Preben Elkjær Larsen and Michael Laudrup , which impressed with impressive attack football and coined the term "Danish Dynamite", which became the nickname of the national team . Piontek mainly relied on legionnaires playing in the European leagues , who brought the professional attitude from their clubs with them to the national team, which had previously been more of an amateur team and had participated in the Olympic Games until the 1970s . In the group , the USSR , which also qualified, Switzerland , Ireland and Norway were distanced. The last two away games in Norway and Ireland were won 5-1 and 4-1.

In Mexico, the Danes met Scotland in a so-called death group , as well as the two former world champions Uruguay and Germany . In the Danes' first World Cup game, the Scots were defeated 1-0, with Preben Elkjær Larsen scoring the first World Cup goal for Denmark. A bang followed against Uruguay and the first world champion Uruguay was outclassed 6-1, which meant that the Danes were qualified for the round of 16. In the final group game against the Germans, who had also already qualified for the round of 16, a 2-0 was achieved, although they would have preferred to lose, because as group winners Denmark met Spain , against whom they had lost in the European Championship semi-finals in 1984, instead of the Moroccans , who were assessed as easier . They then took the lead against the Spaniards after 33 minutes with a penalty converted by Jesper Olsen , but had to accept the 1-1 draw from Emilio Butragueño shortly before the break , who scored four more goals in the second half. With 1: 5 Denmark was eliminated in its first World Cup participation.

1990 in Italy

In qualifying for the second World Cup in Italy , Denmark played in a group of four with Romania , Greece and Bulgaria . On the last day of the match Denmark lost the decisive group game for the group win against Romania with 1: 3 and only finished second in the group.

In contrast to the four groups of five, where, in addition to the four group winners, all four runners-up were qualified for the World Cup, only the two best of the runners-up of the three groups of four qualified through a remote comparison between the three runners-up in the group. Here Denmark (only 8 points), against the FR Germany and England (both 9 points each) the short straw and was eliminated as the worst runners-up in the group, while the FR Germany and England qualified for the 1990 World Cup.

1994 in the United States

The qualification for the World Cup in the USA was also unhappy, even though the Danes had high hopes for the qualification after winning the European Championship in 1992 . The Spaniards and Irish who did not qualify for the European Championship , who scored more goals with the same goal difference, were stronger than Denmark, which only left Northern Ireland , Lithuania , Latvia and Albania behind.

1998 in France

For the second World Cup in France , Denmark and Croatia , which was admitted to a World Cup qualification for the first time , prevailed in the group against Greece , Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia .

In France, the Danes won against Saudi Arabia 1-0 and then achieved a 1-1 draw against World Cup newcomers South Africa . Against hosts France they lost 2-1. In the second round, the Danes then won 4-1 against the more highly rated African champions Nigeria and met defending champions Brazil in the quarter-finals . Denmark took the lead after just two minutes, but the record world champions equalized eight minutes later to take the lead in the 25th minute. Brian Laudrup was able to equalize in the 50th minute, but nine minutes later Brazil made it 3-2, and it stayed. The quarter-finals were sealed, but a better result has not yet been achieved.

2002 in Japan and South Korea

Four years later they qualified again for the first World Cup in Asia . Denmark and the Czech Republic , which failed in the group runners-up play-offs to Belgium , prevailed against Bulgaria , Iceland , Northern Ireland and Malta . Denmark did not lose a game.

In Korea, they faced Uruguay in their first game and won 2-1. This was followed by a 1-1 draw against World Cup newcomers Senegal , who surprisingly defeated defending champions France 1-0 in the opening game. The Danes also managed to beat the defending champions (2-0), making them the group winners in the round of 16. There they met England and lost 3-0.

2006 in Germany

The Danes could not qualify for the second World Cup in Germany . In the group, they only took third place, one point behind the Turks . Group winners Ukraine had three points more than Denmark and qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time. The points were lost in the two draws against Turkey and the defeat against Greece . But the draw in Georgia was not enough either. Albania and Kazakhstan , on the other hand, were defeated twice.

2010 in South Africa

Scene from the game Netherlands - Denmark during the preliminary round match of the 2010 World Cup

The qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa managed Denmark, however, as group winners a six-group before Portugal , which qualified through the playoffs of the runners, Sweden , Hungary , Albania and Malta . The Danes only lost in Portugal.

In South Africa, the Danes lost 2-0 in their first game against the Netherlands . A 2-1 win against Cameroon followed, but a 3-1 draw against Japan ended the World Cup for the Danes.

2014 in Brazil

The Danes could not qualify for the second World Cup in Brazil . In a group with Italy , the Czech Republic , Bulgaria , Armenia and Malta only came second. One of the deciding factors was a surprising 4-0 home defeat against Armenia, which meant that Denmark did not reach the playoffs even as the worst runners-up in the group.

2018 in Russia

In the qualification , which began in September 2016, the Danes, who have been coached by Norwegian Åge Hareide since the end of 2015, faced Romania , Poland , Montenegro , Armenia and Kazakhstan . Of the first five games, the Danes could only win two, lost two and one ended in a draw. The Danes were only in third place, level on points with second Montenegro, but already six points behind the leading Poles. In the second half the Danes won four games, including 4-0 against eventual group winners Poland and only lost a point in the last game against Romania. They finished second and faced Ireland in two games as third-best runner-up in the group. After a 0-0 home game, they fell behind in the second leg in the sixth minute. Andreas Christensen was able to equalize in the 29th minute . Christian Eriksen gave the Danes the lead for the first time three minutes later and increased to 4-1 in the 63rd and 73rd minutes. In the 90th minute Nicklas Bendtner scored the 5-1 final score with a penalty. Denmark was the last European team to qualify for the finals.

player

Ranking of the Danish World Cup players with the most appearances

Martin Jørgensen , player with the most World Cup appearances for Denmark

01. Martin Jørgensen : 11 appearances in 3 tournaments

02. Michael Laudrup and Thomas Helveg : 9 appearances in 2 tournaments

04. Ebbe Sand : 8 appearances in 2 tournaments

05. Dennis Rommedahl , Jan Heintze and Thomas Sørensen : 7 appearances in 2 tournaments

08. Christian Eriksen , Jesper Grønkjær , Simon Kjær , Christian Poulsen , Jon Dahl Tomasson and Stig Tøfting : 6 appearances in 2 tournaments

Ranking of the Danish World Cup players with the most World Cup goals

01. Jon Dahl Tomasson - 5 goals

02. Preben Elkjær Larsen - 4 goals

03. Jesper Olsen - 3 goals

World Cup captains

• 1986: Morten Olsen
• 1998: Michael Laudrup
• 2002: Jan Heintze (1st and 2nd game), René Henriksen (3rd and 4th game)
• 2010: Jon Dahl Tomasson (2nd and 3rd game), Martin Jørgensen (1st game)
• 2018: Simon Kjær

Players banned from World Championships

• 1986: Frank Arnesen received the red card in the game against Germany two minutes before the end of the game and was suspended for the round of 16.
• 1998: Miklos Molnar received the red card in the second group match against South Africa eight minutes after being substituted on, and Morten Wieghorst in the 85th minute, three minutes after being substituted on. Both were suspended for the last group game. The second yellow cards for Søren Colding and Stig Töfting in the quarter-finals had no further effect.
• 2002: Christian Poulsen received the second yellow card in the last group game and was suspended for the round of 16.
• 2006: Simon Kjær received the second yellow card in the second group match and was suspended for the last group match.
• 2018: Yussuf Poulsen received the second yellow card in the second group game and is suspended for the last group game.

Share of players playing abroad in the World Cup squad

Legionnaires always made up the largest proportion of the Danish team.

Year (games)	Number (countries)	Players (stakes)
1986 (4)	15 (3 in Belgium, 1 in Germany, 3 in England, 3 in Italy, 4 in the Netherlands, 1 in Switzerland)	Henrik Andersen (3), Per Frimann (0), Morten Olsen (4); Søren Lerby ; Jan Mølby (4), Jesper Olsen (4), John Sivebæk (2); Klaus Berggreen (3), Preben Elkjær Larsen (4), Michael Laudrup (4); Frank Arnesen (3), Søren Busk (4), John Eriksen (2), Ivan Nielsen (3); Jens Jørn Bertelsen (3)
1998 (5)	16 (3 in Germany, 4 in England, 2 in Italy, 2 in the Netherlands, 3 in Scotland, 1 in Spain, 1 in Turkey)	Jan Heintze (5), Michael Schjønberg (4), Stig Tøfting (2); Per Frandsen (2), Jacob Laursen (1), Allan Nielsen (5), Peter Schmeichel (5); Thomas Helveg (5), Martin Jørgensen (5); Michael Laudrup (5), Peter Møller (2); Brian Laudrup (5), Marc Rieper (5), Morten Wieghorst (3); Miklos Molnar (1); Jes Høgh (5)
2002 (4)	21 (1 in Germany, 6 in England, 2 in Greece, 3 in Italy, 4 in the Netherlands, 1 in Norway, 3 in Scotland, 1 in Sweden)	Ebb sand (3); Thomas Gravesen (4), Jesper Grønkjær (4), Claus Jensen (1), Niclas Jensen (3), Thomas Sørensen (4), Stig Tøfting (4); René Henriksen (4), Jan Michaelsen (0); Thomas Helveg (4), Martin Jørgensen (3), Martin Laursen (4); Kasper Bøgelund (2), Jan Heintze (2), Dennis Rommedahl (4), Jon Dahl Tomasson (4); Steven Lustü (0); Jesper Christiansen (0), Peter Kjær (0), Peter Løvenkrands (1); Brian Steen Nielsen (0)
2010 (3)	16 (3 in Germany, 4 in England, 3 in Italy, 5 in the Netherlands, 1 in Spain)	Daniel Jensen (1), Thomas Kahlenberg (3) Søren Larsen (1); Daniel Agger (3), Nicklas Bendtner (3), Lars Jacobsen (3), Thomas Sørensen (3); Simon Kjær (2), Per Krøldrup (1), Christian Poulsen (2); Thomas Enevoldsen (1), Christian Eriksen (2), Simon Poulsen (3), Dennis Rommedahl (3), Jon Dahl Tomasson (2); Patrick Mtiliga (0)
2018 (4)	20 (3 in Germany, 8 in England, 1 in France, 2 in Italy, 3 in the Netherlands, 3 in Spain)	Thomas Delaney (4), Yussuf Poulsen (3), Jannik Vestergaard ; Martin Braithwaite (4), Andreas Christensen (4), Henrik Dalsgaard (4), Christian Eriksen (4), Jonas Knudsen (1), Jonas Lössl , Kasper Schmeichel (4), Zanka (3); Lukas Lerager (1); Andreas Cornelius (3), Jens Stryger Larsen (3); Kasper Dolberg (1), Nicolai Jørgensen (2), Lasse Schöne (3); Simon Kjær (4), Michael Krohn-Dehli (1), Pione Sisto (4)

Games

• Denmark has played 20 World Cup games so far. Of these, 9 were won, 6 lost and 5 ended in a draw. A game had to be extended and was lost on penalties.
• Denmark have met France three times and Uruguay twice in the World Cup, otherwise there have been no further matches between the two teams.

All other World Cup pairings in Denmark have been unique so far.

• Denmark never played in the opening match, but met the hosts once (1998).
• In 1998 in the quarter-finals and in 2002 in the preliminary round, the Danes played against the defending champions.
• Denmark met newcomers to the World Cup twice: 1998 / South Africa, 2002 / Senegal.
• In 1998 and 2018 Denmark played against eventual world champions France and reached a goalless draw in the preliminary round in 2018, so that in 2018 Denmark was the only opponent of the eventual world champions who did not lose to the French.

All World Cup games
No.	date	Result	opponent		venue	occasion	Remarks
1	06/04/1986	1-0	Scotland	*	Nezahualcóyotl ( MEX )	Preliminary round
2	06/08/1986	6: 1	Uruguay	*	Nezahualcóyotl ( MEX )	Preliminary round	1st international against Uruguay
3	06/13/1986	2-0	BR Germany	*	Querétaro ( MEX )	Preliminary round
4th	06/18/1986	1: 5	Spain	*	Querétaro ( MEX )	Round of 16
5	06/12/1998	1-0	Saudi Arabia	*	Lens ( FRA )	Preliminary round	100th game by Michael Laudrup (according to DBU count)
6th	06/18/1998	1: 1	South Africa	*	Toulouse ( FRA )	Preliminary round	1st international against South Africa 100th game by Michael Laudrup (based on FIFA counts)
7th	06/24/1998	1: 2	France	A.	Lyon ( FRA )	Preliminary round	With his 103rd international match (according to DBU counting) Peter Schmeichel replaces Morten Olsen as the record national player.
8th	06/28/1998	4: 1	Nigeria	*	Saint-Denis ( FRA )	Round of 16	1st international match against Nigeria
9	07/03/1998	2: 3	Brazil	*	Nantes ( FRA )	Quarter finals
10	06/01/2002	2: 1	Uruguay	*	Ulsan ( KOR )	Preliminary round
11	06/06/2002	1: 1	Senegal	*	Daegu ( KOR )	Preliminary round
12	06/11/2002	2-0	France	*	Incheon ( KOR )	Preliminary round
13	06/15/2002	0: 3	England	*	Niigata ( JPN )	Round of 16
14th	06/14/2010	0: 2	Netherlands	*	Johannesburg ( ZAF )	Preliminary round
15th	06/19/2010	2: 1	Cameroon	*	Pretoria ( ZAF )	Preliminary round
16	06/24/2010	1: 3	Japan	*	Rustenburg ( ZAF )	Preliminary round
17th	June 16, 2018	1-0	Peru	*	Saransk ( RUS )	Group game	First game against Peru
18th	June 21, 2018	1: 1	Australia	*	Samara ( RUS )	Group game
19th	06/26/2018	0-0	France	*	Moscow ( RUS )	Group game	Only goalless draw at the 2018 World Cup
20th	07/01/2018	1: 1 n.V., 2: 3 i. E.	Croatia	*	Nizhny Novgorod ( RUS )	Round of 16

Highest victories and defeats

The Danish team achieved their highest victories against the following countries in World Cup tournaments:

•  Cameroon : Preliminary round 2010 - 2: 1 (also a 2: 1 in a friendly game)
•  Nigeria : Round of 16 1998 - 4-1 (only game against Nigeria)
•  Peru : Preliminary round 2018 - 1-0 (only game against Peru)
•  Uruguay : preliminary round 1986 - 6-1

The Danish team suffered their biggest defeats in World Cup tournaments against the following countries:

•  Japan : Preliminary round 2010 - 1: 3 (only loss to Japan)
•  Spain : Round of 16 1986-1-5

Records

• Second fastest goal after a substitution: Ebbe Sand after 21 seconds against Nigeria at the 1998 World Cup.
• Denmark scored the second most goals of the teams that participated a maximum of five times: 30
• Fewest goals conceded in a tournament: 2 at the 2018 World Cup in 4 games (also Iran and Peru in 3 games each)

Negative records

• Biggest defeat in the round of 16 (after the preliminary round): 1986 1: 5 against Spain
• Along with Czechoslovakia (1978) and Greece (2006), Denmark is one of the three European champions who did not qualify for the World Cup. After winning the European Championship in 1992, Denmark failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup.
• Fastest red card after substitution: Morten Wieghorst 85th minute - 3 minutes after substitution, in 1998 in the game against South Africa (as well as Ion Vlădoiu / Romania, who in 1994 against Switzerland in the 73rd and Marco Etcheverry / Bolivia, who in 1994 against Germany received the red card in the 82nd minute)

See also

• Danish Women's National Football Team / World Championships
• Danish national football team / European championships

Web links

• Football World - Statistics - Denmark on fifa.com
• fifa.com: "Statistical overview: records and milestones"

References and footnotes

1. ↑ The placements from 5th place onwards were determined by FIFA without any placement games. See: All-time FIFA World Cup Ranking 1930-2010 (PDF; 200 kB)
2. ↑ For many Danish players, the DBU and FIFA therefore give different numbers for the number of A international matches.
3. ↑ fifa.com: Italy against Sweden, Switzerland against Northern Ireland
4. ↑ fifa.com: "Match report South Africa - Denmark 1: 1 (0: 1)"
5. ↑ Three of them in the 2nd division