The UEFA European Championship is, perhaps, the largest international football competition outside of the World Cup.
I have previously written about an unlikely Euro triumph that many believe to be the greatest underdog story of all time. Of course, I am speaking of the time Greece shocked world and won the Euros in 2004.
The Greeks went into this tournament as the second least likely team to go all the way, only just losing out to Latvia in first place on that list. Despite that, they beat the odds and won the whole thing.
However, I am missing just one important detail.
Greece qualified for this tournament.
In 1992, this was not the case for Denmark. Despite this, on that occasion, Denmark came out victorious.
Now, I know what you are thinking: How is that even possible? Well, you are in luck. In today’s article, we are going to look into just how that happened.
So, with that being said, how did Denmark win the UEFA Euros in 1992?
Denmark is a nation that has produced some of the finest talents in world football over the years. Players that many may even refer to as football royalty. However, none have gone on to reach the pinnacle of European football quite like the Danes of 92.
Like many stories in international and club football, for that matter, the story of what exactly leads to a particular nation or team’s success begins long before the victory itself.
The case of Denmark is no exception.
Just we are all on the same page, and in case you’re unaware; between 1980 and 1996, the UEFA Euros was contested between only 8 teams. The top two teams from each group gained entry into the semi-finals and we ended things off conventionally with a good ol’ final showdown.
Okay, back to Denmark.
To understand how Denmark wound up in this position, I feel a good place to kick things off is to give a brief overview of Denmark in the 80s.
Table of Contents
Danish Dynamite
Up until about 1978, football played in Denmark was played strictly in an amateur capacity. This means exactly what you think it does. Players and coaches were not allowed to be paid to participate in the sport.
Recognising that this was likely stifling their chances of competing on an international level, the Danish footballing association abolished this ruling. And in doing so, began to take on sponsors for the national team.
Among several notable investments they were able to make with this sponsorship money, perhaps the most significant was the appointing of Sepp Piontek as the national team’s first ever full-time manager in 1979.
Despite being German by origin, in a way, Piontek was not the only “foreigner” to be in the mix of the Danish national team. Several of the players that Piontek had at his disposal in his first few years as the coach were already plying their trade all across Europe.
1984 Euros
By the time the 1984 Euros came around, out of the 20-man squad that Piontek brought with him, 14 of them were playing in a foreign league. However, this was a good thing. It allowed for the notion of professionalism to seep into the DNA of the Danish national team at an accelerated rate.
So accelerated in fact, that this team that had only just hired their first full time coach 5 years prior, was competing in the semi-finals of the 1984 UEFA Euros.
And they were not just competing. No no, these guys were playing what many would refer to as swashbuckling football.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe performances they were putting up were nothing other than explosive. Piontek’s setup and the composition of the team led to some of the most thrilling attacking football on offer at that point in time.
To give you an idea of what I am talking about, the only team that scored more goals than them throughout the entire tournament was France: The eventual winners.
Denmark was unfortunately knocked out by Spain in the semi-finals on penalties. But it’s safe to say that world started to take notice.
“We are red, we are white. We are Danish Dynamite”. A popular chant for the team that was coined in the early 80s.
I can see the correlation.
The fall of Danish Dynamite
The team comprised of legends such as Preben Elkjaer, Frank Arnesen, Morten Olsen and a man that would soon be the crown jewel of Danish football; Michael Laudrup.
For anyone unaware, Laudrup is regarded as the best Danish player to ever take to the pitch. And even further to that, he is regarded by several, Andres Iniesta included, as the best player of all time.
Deployed as an attacker, but more specifically as a 10 on most occasions, his passing, movement, awareness, and vision was unrivalled in his prime. At the 1986 World Cup, this talent was there for all to see. Alongside Elkjaer up top, the brute unrelenting attacking force of the Danes was almost palpable.
Despite this being Denmark’s first ever appearance in a World Cup, Piontek’s men were keen to show that they were not a one hit wonder. They topped their group with some incredible performances, including a 6-1 drilling of Uruguay.
And amongst the six goals scored in this match was an absolute gem by Laudrup. The man only went ahead and almost effortlessly drifted passed the Uruguay defence and goalkeeper before passing the ball into an empty net.
Now, that was all well and good. But only 10 days after this emphatic win, many were forced to face a fact that was probably quite easy to forget in the heat of the moment. Attacking football comes with risk.
How much risk, you ask? Enough risk to lose to Spain in the first knockout round by 5 goals to 1. Yeah, the defensive shortcomings of this team were on show for all to see in this match.
Unfortunately, that was just about that for the legendary Danish Dynamite era. By the 1988 Euros, the team was very clearly not what it used to be. They lost all 3 games in the group stages and failed to even qualify for the 1990 World Cup.
By April of 1990, Sepp Piontek had vacated his post as the Denmark National team coach. A Denmark team that had thrilled the world throughout the 80s was going through a bit of an identity crisis and something needed to be done.
The rise of Richard Møller Nielsen
First things first, the Danish FA needed to sort out the coaching situation. For obvious reasons, their first choice was a German. Hopefully, this one could emulate and improve on what the last German started.
In steps Horst Wohlers. A man that was coaching Bayer Uerdingen was convinced of the project and in March of 1990, he was unveiled as the head coach of the Denmark national team.
Only problem was, I guess the Danish FA did not realise he was still employed, and they had to reach an agreement with his current employers to get him on board. A small oversight, I guess. So, it goes without saying that Wohlers was out almost as soon as he was in.
Although, there were still more candidates that were shortlisted. Surely one of them would bite? Nope. After the whole Wohlers debacle, seemingly nobody wanted in on the action.
However, there was someone who did want in. And despite him probably being the most obvious option, ironically, he was at the bottom of the list.
Richard Møller Nielsen.
Embed from Getty ImagesA man who had been the u21 coach for 11 years between 1978 and 1989, as wel l as the Danish national team assistant coach since 1987.
You see, Nielsen’s shortcomings in the eyes of many in power in the Danish FA was firstly, that he was inexperienced as a head coach of a national team. Fair enough.
But secondly, and perhaps more significantly, it was that he was a pragmatist. Having sat on the side-lines and been witness to the often-reckless attacking strategy of the Danish Dynamite era, he was of the opinion that a defensively rigid, structured approach was necessary if any success was on the cards for Denmark.
I am pretty sure I don’t have to be the one to tell you that this notion was rejected by many. We are Danish Dynamite. Remember?
In any case, Nielsen was eventually appointed as the head coach. Likely as the Danish FAs last option. I do just want to point out that, like I said, he was the u21 coach for over a decade, and had therefore nurtured many of the Danish players that were now in the senior team. So, he was not universally hated.
Despite the bad press, he did have a chance to prove himself, though. After all, the 1992 UEFA Euro qualifiers were looming large.
1992 Euro qualifiers
Qualifiers
As you can imagine, you cannot teach an old dog new tricks. Despite the negative press, Nielsen stuck to his coaching philosophy and implemented it going into the qualifiers. Which was met with the exact response you would think it was.
To give you an idea of the perception of the team members opposed to these tactics, former Liverpool and Danish striker, Jan Mølby, once had this to say about the early stages of Nielsen tenure as coach:
“Everything turned Ultra-defensive. We had loved to come home and play on the national team. But it was like the air went out the balloon from one day to another. It is difficult to explain, but it became a completely different camp.”
2 games into the qualifiers and Denmark had won one and drawn the other. It’s important to note that only the winners of each group qualified for the actual tournament. Standing in Denmark’s way was a formidable Yugoslavia team that had won both of their opening matches. And in the third match of the qualifiers, they were up next.
If Denmark wanted to qualify, they simply had to win.
However, they did not. And to add insult to injury, Nielsen only played one striker and adopted a defensive approach throughout the match, despite going down 2-0.
For a man that already did not have all that many fans, this was not ideal. In fact, some had had enough.
The brothers, Michael Laudrup and Brian Laudrup, both being attackers and both being huge proponents of attacking football, decided that perhaps the national team was not worth the stress.
Michael was diplomatic in his reasoning for this decision, stating:
“There are times where it is impossible to play well, and I feel that way on the national team at the moment. I can’t contribute with anything good or inspiring, and so I might as well stop.”
Brian, however, was not so subtle:
“I don’t respect Richard Møller Nielsen as a coach, and therefore I might as well stop now. I can’t display myself under him, and he doesn’t like me as a player.”
So basically, Denmark had just lost their two biggest attacking talents with one of them being the crown jewel I was referring to earlier on.
To the surprise of many, Denmark actually won all of their remaining qualifying matches, including the reverse fixture against Yugoslavia. However, the damage was already done, and Yugoslavia ended up topping the group by a single point.
It was official: Denmark had failed to qualify for the 1992 UEFA Euros.
However, there were positives to take away from this. Denmark showed that they could produce results without their star men through sheer teamwork.
Moving forward, Nielsen and the boys may be able to build on these lessons and improve. However, they would have to set their eyes on the 1994 World Cup for that.
Or so we all thought.
Tragedy, opportunity and team tactics
In a tragic turn of events, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was broken up and a decade long civil war was in full swing. As a result of this, Yugoslavia was barred from competing, despite earning qualification.
And so, only 13 days prior to the tournament, Denmark were in. Shockingly, they had booked their tickets to the Euros in Sweden without even qualifying.
As you could imagine, Yugoslavia’s disqualification and Denmark’s subsequent inclusion in the Euros was something that had very little precent. In fact, none at all.
Many of the players had already gone on holiday after their regular league season had ended. So you would expect that they might be on the heftier side at that point in time. In fact, when they were all informed of the news and returned to training ahead of the tournament, Peter Schmeichel even described them as “a bunch of fat vacation lads”.
However, this is not necessarily the full truth. You see, the Danish Domestic league, the Danish Superliga, was still ongoing until only days before the Euros. Many of the Danish national team players were plying their trade in this league. And further to that, the team had a friendly with the Soviet Union national team that they were in preparation for.
Adding onto that, Nielsen was more prepared than you may think for this tournament. After closely following the news coming out of Yugoslavia, he began to ponder the possibility of his Denmark side being included in their place as runners up to this group. This became reality.
Seemingly, everything was falling into place.
Despite his harsh words, Brian Laudrup did end up returning to the national side to compete in the Euros.
Michael, however, was not so keen. At 28 years of age, he was in the prime of his career and running the show with Barcelona come 1992. They had just won La Liga and the European Cup and were kicking into a new gear under Johan Cruyff. At this point, he was universally regarded as one of the very best players in the world. Perhaps the best, in the eyes of some.
Despite several calls to re-join the national team setup since quitting, he decided to not take up the offer of a return.
I guess Brian was still 23 and had not fully established himself yet. Not that I am saying that had anything to do with their respective decisions. It is purely speculative. Just trying to give a bit of context.
Tactics
So, at this point you may be wondering how these guys actually setup. Why were Nielsen’s tactics so vehemently rejected by so many? What caused Michael Laudrup to walk away?
At a very high level, these are more or less the tactics employed by Nielsen’s Denmark in the tournament.
For the most part, Denmark played in a 352. This was actually more of a 532, due to the defensive approach to the game that Nielsen implemented.
On a high level, the tactics employed by the team focused on playing a very narrow game and denying the opposition space to work with in the centre of the pitch. They worked hard to put men behind the ball at all times and defended both zonally and on a man-to-man basis.
Attackers
Up top, Denmark had the partnership of Brian Laudrup and Flemming Povlsen. In Povlsen, Denmark had an extremely hard-working striker that would chase down every ball in the oppositions half and track back when required.
In Laudrup, Denmark had essentially their only creative outlet. He would do an incredible job in dribbling the ball out of danger or simply hold the ball up for his team to get back into shape. He scored no goals in Euro 92, but his contribution was worth its weight in gold.
At the start of the tournament, Bent Christensen started up top with Povlsen, with Laudrup playing in the midfield. But after an injury, he unfortunately had to withdraw from the tournament. This left Richard Møller Nielsen with the task of having to shuffle his squad around and eventually led to Laudrup being played in a more advanced role.
Midfielders
John Jensen, Kim Vilfort and Henrik Larsen made up the midfield thereafter. They offered a very balanced 3, with Jensen as the defensive midfielder, Vilfort as the box-to-box man and Larsen as the more attack minded centre mid. As evidenced by the fact that Larsen was the top scorer in this entire tournament with 3 goals.
Defenders
Henrik Andersen and John Sivebæk filled the wingback positions. Both very disciplined defenders with good technique, that could also get up in attack. The left wingback role was also played by Kim Christofte on occasion due to squad injuries.
In defence, before injuries set in, the two stoppers were usually Kim Christofte and Kent Nielsen. When Christofte moved onto the left wingback position, Torben Piechnik stepped into the central defensive spot he vacated. All 3 were very good shields.
And in the sweeper role, we had the captain, Lars Olsen. His mandate was to clean up any loose balls that made it passed the first two stoppers and act as the final shield of outfield players.
Goalkeeper
And finally, we had Peter Schmeichel between the sticks. The man who had only just signed for Manchester United the season prior went on to be named the player of the tournament for the 92 Euros. An insane shot stopper that saved Denmark on several occasions.
As you can imagine, this team was built for the counter and would typically do so via the flanks and wide areas. In addition to that, Richard Møller Nielsen leaned quite hard into putting his faith in the individual brilliance of his squad.
But that was only because he believed in them.
According to Brian Laudrup, before the tournament, the coach gathered his troops together for a bit of a team talk. Nielsen is said to have stated:
“Let’s make one thing clear. We’re going to Sweden to win the competition.”
At that point, all the boys started laughing. But not Richard Møller Nielsen. Perhaps he knew something that that we all did not. I guess we would have to wait to find out.
1992 UEFA Euros
Group Stages
Ok, so. The tournament itself.
In the group stages, already Denmark was faced with what many believed to be an insurmountable task for them. England, France and the hosts, Sweden.
First up, England. Despite missing their Starman Paul Gascoigne through injury, this was still an England side that had made it to the Semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup. A tough task indeed. Understandably, Denmark was tipped to lose. However, the game ended goalless. And some would even argue the Danes deserved the win.
Next up, Sweden. This result reflected more or less how most felt Denmark would fair in this tournament. Despite playing a good game, they emerged as losers by a goal to nil. After a draw and a defeat in the first two matches, it was pretty much universally accepted that Denmark was crashing out of the tournament.
This was mostly due to the fact that their opponents in the final group match were the heavy favourites to win the whole thing: France. The only team that won every single one of their qualifying matches. Eight out of eight
Didier Deschamps, Eric Cantona, Laurent Blanc and Jean Pierre Papin: The reigning Ballon d’or winner.
Despite this, Denmark came out as 2-1 winners. This left a large portion of the football world shellshocked.
At this point, many began to think that perhaps Denmark was not just there to make up numbers.
To give you an idea of the mentality that was surrounding the Denmark players going into the group stages, when speaking to BBC Sport, Kim Vilfort once said:
“We couldn’t fail because there were no expectations. If we lost 5-0 three times, then that would not have mattered.”
But I think he may have been underplaying just how good these guys were and how close they were as a unit. 10 of the players in this squad had previously played for Brondby at some point in their careers.
And only 1 year prior to this tournament, 6 of those players had made it to the Semi-finals of the UEFA Cup. To give you a bit of context, at the time of writing this article, that is the furthest that any team from Denmark has ever gone in any major European club competition.
Semi Finals
In any case, these guys would have to bring the energy that got them that far (and more) if they wanted to go passed their next opponents: The holders of the UEFA Euros title at the time: The Netherlands.
Ruud Gullit, Denis Bergkamp, Ronald Koeman, and the soon to be Ballon d’or winner from that very year, Marco van Basten. No pressure.
All the same, Denmark stood firm. After a hard fought 2-2 draw that went the full 120 minutes, a penalty shootout was required to settle the match.
In steps the man himself, Peter Schmeichel. Marco van Basten, The Netherlands’ Starman was denied at point blank range by The Great Dane and Kim Christofte nonchalantly slotted the ball in the bottom left corner to make Denmark 5-4 winners.
At this point, Denmark had achieved something spectacular. Many would even say that regardless of the final result, these men had come out victorious. They had come out and defied everyone’s expectations.
Finals
Now that’s all well and good, but surely, they were not prepared for their next challenge. They were pit up against, putting it mildly, football royalty.
Germany.
The current holders of the World Cup and the most successful European team in history at that point and to this day. At the time, Die Mannschaft boasted 3 World Cup trophies, as well as 2 UEFA European Championship trophies.
Denmark had been living a fairy-tale up that point, but surely the jig was up.
Well.
18 minutes in and John Jensen opened up the scoring for Denmark with an incredible strike just inside the box. This was his first ever goal for his country and only 1 of 8 goals he scored over his 18-year career. The entirety of Denmark was in dreamland.
That is the entirety of Denmark, minus the 11 men on the pitch. Their feet were firmly on the ground and their heads were focussed on seeing this thing through. And my word did these men put up an incredible, defensively solid performance.
However, while each and every Denmark player was having a cracker, it was surely Peter Schmeichel that emerged as the standout.
Simply put: the Denmark goal was closed for business throughout the match. He was a colossus.
And in the 78th minute, Denmark left the world speechless. Kim Vilfort doubled their lead with a phenomenal strike from outside the box.They held on and, just like that, Denmark had done it.
A team that hadn’t even qualified had just beaten the tournament favourites, the reigning European champions and the reigning World Champions. All without the countries best ever player, whom, and I can’t stress this enough, was in the prime of his career.
Now THAT is a story.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Legacy
Criticism
Like any title winners that do not win their trophies through blistering attacking play, this Denmark team was and still is faced with wide criticism. Many obviously lament their defensive display and label it as negative.
In addition to that, many credit the back pass rule as the teams salvation.
To be honest, I can see why this is brought up. If you are unaware, in the past, if a player passed the ball back to their goalkeeper, the goalkeeper was allowed to pick it up.
In a few circumstances in the final match, we could see Denmark using this ruling to their advantage to do a cheeky bit of timewasting.
However, I see no reason we should condemn the Danes for it. This was still allowed back then. I mean, teams will always find a way to time waste within the boundaries of the rules. It may be frustrating, but it is legal.
In any case, this European final was the last match before the back pass rule was created. This prohibited goalkeepers from handling the ball from back passes.
However, as a sidenote, just to clear up any misconceptions: this rule was not put into place because of Denmark. The new ruling had actually been agreed upon to take effect at the onset of the 92/93 season before the 92 Euros even began.
Instead, many credit the implementation of the rule due to a group stage match in the 1990 World Cup between Northern Ireland and Egypt.
Richard Møller Nielsen
Moving along, despite this incredible win, Richard Møller Nielsen was very arguably not given the respect and recognition he rightfully deserved right away. Which is strange considering the fact that this was and still is the crowning footballing achievement of a country with only about 6 million inhabitants.
In the decades that followed this incredible victory, many were still revelling in the Danish Dynamite era and not the 92 Euros victory.
On the 13th of February 2014, Richard Møller Nielsen sadly passed on at 76 years of age. Shortly after his passing, he was posthumously inducted into the Danish Football Hall of fame. Only thing is, the Euro 1992 team was inducted 6 years earlier in 2008. The Danish Dynamite team was inducted 5 years prior in 2009. And Sepp Piontek was inducted 3 y ears prior in 2011.
Nielsen’s contributions to Danish football cannot be applauded enough. The bumpy ride he had to take in order to receive the job that he was clearly the right man for, and what he managed to achieve is incredible.
I haven’t even mentioned that he also led Denmark to a 1995 confederations cup triumph, 3 years after the Euros.
For Denmark, and indeed the rest of the World, Nielsens stand as a symbol of hope. A symbol that even a small nation like Denmark can dream. And better yet, dream big.
Richard Møller Nielsen, and the Danish boys of 92 will forever be remembered as the team that stole the show without even getting a ticket.
Sources
https://thesefootballtimes.co/2016/04/11/how-denmark-almost-forgot-to-love-richard-moller-nielsen/
https://www.givemesport.com/1670250-denmark-exploited-backpass-rule-to-win-euro-1992
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_1992
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2009/oct/13/forgotten-story-denmark-1980s
https://thesefootballtimes.co/2020/01/31/kim-vilfort-the-tragic-hero-of-denmarks-euro-92-glory/
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/17757335
https://www.theversed.com/44787/denmark-euro-1992-without-qualifying-tournament/
https://www.givemesport.com/1702449-euro-1992-remembering-denmarks-improbable-win-in-1992
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17632399
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/05/31/Yugoslavia-barred-from-European-Championships/3160707284800/
https://www.ft.com/content/aa2c9e30-0c50-11de-b87d-0000779fd2ac
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Thanks
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