Euro stories: Denmark, Sweden's 92 holiday champion

Few stories of the European Championship are as remembered as the feat carried out by the footballers of the Denmark National Team in the Swedish 92 competition, in which Spain did not participate. At that time, the tournament was designed for eight teams in its phase final. The qualifying teams were Sweden, France, England, Yugoslavia, which would make up Group A, and Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland and the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), which would make up Group B. Denmark had failed to qualify for the phase. final, but an unexpected twist had them pack their bags and stand in Sweden to contest the championship. With this, the Sweden 92 tournament was lame in the absence of a team. The Danish national team was called up to play the European Championship, to the disbelief of its coach, Richard Moller-Nielsen, and that of the players themselves who were taken away from their holidays. Denmark had a hard time getting twenty players together to move to Sweden, but In the end they got a good number of top-level footballers to attend the event, including not the team’s star, Michael Laudrup, but his brother, Brian, goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, Henrik Larsen or Flemming Poulsen. them, but the coach told them, just before the start of the championship that they had gone there to win it. Race to the final Few predictions have been fulfilled as faithful as the one that coach Richard Moller-Nielsen made to his players.With no time to train, Denmark made their debut against England in a draw, and lost the next game to hosts Sweden 1-0 with a goal from Thomas Brolin. The last group match would be a formality for all. France was at stake in qualifying and the Danes were still on vacation in Sweden. But the game had to be played, when all seemed lost, with a 1-1 score, Lars Elstrup, a Danish Odense footballer at the time, made it 1-2 for the Danes who received help from Sweden when they beat England , and planted, almost unwantedly, in the semifinals of the European Championship in Sweden 92. Schmeichel’s time in the European Championship The semifinal was presented from the beginning very uneven. The Netherlands National Team was full of stars like Rijkaard, Berkamp, or Van Basten, in their last international competition. The match was dizzying with a 2-2 after 90 minutes and extra time, so you had to go to penalties It was Peter Schmeichel’s time. At that time the Danish goalkeeper was already known as the Manchester United goalkeeper, but that night he emerged as one of the most outstanding goalkeepers on the continent, Schmeichel saved Van Basten’s penalty, and Denmark, who did not miss any, would play the final against the almighty Germany with stars such as Kolher, Brehme, Effenberg, Möller, Sammer and Jürgen Klisnmann. In addition, Germany came as reigning world champion after winning in Italy 90 to Maradona’s Argentina. Red Dynamite With nothing to lose and living an unexpected dream Luck and the cunning of the Danish team overcame German elegance, with Jensen making the unexpected 1-0 1-0 for Denmark in the 18th minute, in a match where Peter Schmeichel shone again.Already in 80, Villfort, put the sentence and madness broke out among the Danish fans who had come to Sweden 92 without much desire, and ended up raising the cup a few weeks later. Life gave Villfort joy, ten days later his seven-year-old daughter died of leukemia. The Danish dream was one of the biggest surprises to date in the history of the European Championship.