Each Wednesday from now until the tournament kicks-off, TheFA.com will be profiling all the countries partipating at Euro 2004.

1992 European champions Denmark are in Euro 2004 Group C with Italy, Bulgaria and Sweden.

Their manager is Morten Olsen and four Premiership players are regular members of his squad; Thomas Sorensen (Aston Villa), Claus Jensen (Charlton), Thomas Gravesen (Everton) and Jesper Gronkjaer (Chelsea). They face Scotland in a friendly on April 28

The Facts

Denmark faced Great Britain in two successive Olympic Games finals, losing 2-0 in 1908 and 4-2 in 1912.

The Danes didn’t qualify for any major football tournament until 1984 – when they reached the semi-finals of the European Championship.

Their World Cup debut was in 1986, they eliminated Scotland in the group stages before losing 5-1 to Spain.

Denmark were held by both England and Northern Ireland on their way to winning Euro '92. The Danes drew 1-1 in Belfast in their qualifying group and finished second, but were allowed to play in the finals after the withdrawal of group winners Yugoslavia. In the finals, they drew 0-0 with Graham Taylor’s England.

Their Euro '92 side contained several players who either played or were to play for British clubs, including Peter Schmeichel and John Sivebaek (Man Utd), Torben Piechnik (Liverpool), Brian Laudrup (Rangers) and John Jensen (Arsenal).

John Jensen scored against Germany in the 1992 European Championship final – and then managed just one goal in his next 132 games for Arsenal.

Denmark’s last competitive game against England ended in a 3-0 defeat at the 2002 World Cup; with Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen and Emile Heskey scoring

The Opinion

PSV Eindhoven winger Dennis Rommedahl believes Denmark are involved in the most evenly-matched group at Euro 2004.

"Italy must be the favourites but after that anything can happen for second place. It is very close between Bulgaria, Sweden and ourselves," he admits.

The team of Euro '92 are heroes for what they achieved. But we can’t think like that at the moment. We have to start off well and see what happens."

One thing is for sure – Denmark will rely on good old-fashioned wingers more than any of the other 16 sides on show.

"Yes, we have three good wingers to choose from in myself, Jesper Gronkjaer and Martin Jorgensen of Udinese," says Rommedahl.

"We are fighting for the two places but it’s good to have competition. We are friends off the pitch, we support each other and we are looking forward to meeting up in Copenhagen for the Scotland game. Jesper is doing well at Chelsea and it’s possible they could win the Champions League."

Rommedahl was part of the Denmark team that beat England 3-2 at Old Trafford in November. Although he doesn’t think the result will count for much at Euro 2004, he believes the eventual winners will come from elsewhere.

"Look, it was a friendly game so you can’t judge England on that. There was no Sol Campbell, no Michael Owen, no Steve Gerrard and no Paul Scholes," he says.

"But my favourites for Euro 2004 are France. Their recent record is tremendous and if they can keep playing like they can, they are the best in the world."

The Colour

Denmark is known for producing cakes. What we call Danish pastry is Wienerbrod to them.

The most successful Danish sportsmen ever is yachtsman Paul Elvstrøm, the first man to win four successive Olympic gold medals (1948-1960).

Denmark had the first amusement park in the world. The Bakken park in Klampenborg was opened in 1583 and is still going strong.

Denmark has a land border with only one country – Germany.

Jesse Bond of Denmark solved the Rubik Cube in 16.53 seconds – an official world record.

The famous Shakespeare quote "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" wasn’t said by Hamlet but by an officer called Marcellus, who had just seen the ghost of Hamlet’s father, the late King of Denmark.

The Matches

Date

Opponents

Venue

Comp

KO

14 Jun 04

Italy

Guimarães

ECF

1700

18 Jun 04

Bulgaria

Braga

ECF

1700

22 Jun 04

Sweden

Porto (Bessa)

ECF

1945


The Squad

Player

Club

Posn

Caps

Goals

Stephan Andersen

AB

G

0

0

Thomas Sorensen

Aston Villa (Eng)

G

32

0

Soren Colding

Bochum (Ger)

G

26

0

René Henriksen

Panathaniakos (Gre)

D

58

0

Niclas Jensen

Bor Dortmund (Ger)

D

26

0

Per Krøldrup

Udinese (Ita)

D

1

0

Martin Laursen

Milan (Ita)

D

31

1

Brian Priske

Genk (Bel)

D

4

0

Thomas Gravesen

Everton (Eng)

M

42

5

Claus Jensen

Charlton Athletic (Eng)

M

26

5

Daniel Jensen

Real Murcia (Spa)

M

3

0

Thomas Kahlenberg

Brøndby

M

1

0

Thomas Røll Larsen

København

M

7

1

Jesper Grønkjær

Chelsea (Eng)

M

42

4

Martin Jorgensen

Udinese (Ita)

M/F

47

8

Dennis Rommedahl

PSV Eindhoven (Hol)

M/F

37

9

Peter Madsen

Bochum (Ger)

F

7

0

Kenneth Perez

AZ Alkmaar (Hol)

F

2

0

Jon Dahl Tomasson

Milan (Ita)

F

56

27