England took the lead against Denmark after just four minutes when Wayne Rooney scored after four minutes. Denmark came back through Jorgensen only for Joe Cole to put England back in front - all this inside the first eight minutes.

Denmark equalised again when Jorgensen got his second of the match, this time from the penalty spot when he was fouled by Upson in the box.

Then with just six minutes left, Jon Dahl Tomasson pounced on Paul Robinson's parry to put Denmark ahead for the first time and to hand England their first ever defeat at the Theatre of Dreams.

After the match, coach Sven-Goran Eriksson was upbeat about his side's display: "There were a lot of good individual things out there and two nice goals, but even if it's a friendly you have to defend properly. Every time you lose the ball you are in trouble and that's what happened today," he said.

"I'm sure if it had been a competitive game we wouldn't have defended like that at certain stages of the game.

"The back four needed more help than they had today, especially on counter-attacks. If we lose the ball stupidly in midfield Denmark have a quick side and they used the breaks very well, congratulations to Denmark."

One player Eriksson was delighted with was young Chelsea defender Glen Johnson, whose rise has been so quick that this time last year had not played a Premiership game.

Eriksson said: "He is a great talent but has to learn a lot of things yet, you can't expect him to be ready."

"In 23 [League] games you don't learn everything about this profession but he is one of those great, great talents that we have.

Another Chelsea player to make a mark was Joe Cole, who was making only his second start for his country. His performance was one of the best from an England player and was rounded off with a well taken goal.

"Joe Cole is also becoming better and better and his quality is incredible. It was nice to see them both, who knows in Portugal if they are ready or not?

"We will try to defend better if we want to win in Portugal. This was very good for the young players, they see that in international football it is not easy and that if you make mistakes you have to pay for them. For me to see players like [Scott] Parker, Cole and [Jermaine] Jenas it's very helpful."