UEFA Euros - England v Denmark

Ten days' notice, a goalless draw with England, and then the European Championship. Denmark kept their best work for later.

Denmark were late replacements at Euro 92 in Sweden, called up just ten days before the tournament after Yugoslavia's disqualification due to the ongoing war. Their opening group match against England in Malmö on 11 June finished 0-0, a result that felt unremarkable at the time. England, managed by Graham Taylor, would go on to exit at the group stage without winning a match. Denmark, however, were just getting started. Richard Møller Nielsen's side beat the Netherlands on penalties in the semi-final and then defeated Germany 2-0 in the final to claim the most improbable title in European Championship history. That goalless draw with England was the first step in one of football's greatest stories.

Four goals past the Netherlands, Gascoigne's shimmy against Scotland, then penalties against Germany; Euro 96 was the tournament that made football a cultural religion in England.

England hosted the European Championship for the first time, and the tournament captured the national imagination. Terry Venables' side played some of their finest football in a generation, with Paul Gascoigne's goal against Scotland and a 4-1 demolition of the Netherlands among the highlights. Denmark were also present but exited in the group stage. England and Denmark were drawn in separate groups and did not meet. England's run ended in the semi-finals against Germany on penalties, a familiar heartbreak. But Euro 96 established the tournament as a cultural occasion in England, not just a sporting one. 'Three Lions' became an anthem that has outlasted the tournament itself.

Twenty years passed without England and Denmark sharing a pitch at a European Championship; the expanded tournament simply kept conspiring against the fixture.

The European Championship expanded to 16 teams in 1996 and the draw kept England and Denmark apart for two decades. Both nations qualified regularly, Denmark reaching the quarter-finals in 2004 and England doing the same in 2004 and 2012, but the fixture simply did not materialise. By Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine, it had been twenty years since the two sides had faced each other at a European Championship.

England arrived in France with comfort; they left courtesy of Iceland, and Hodgson left with them.

Euro 2016 in France expanded the tournament to 24 teams for the first time. England qualified comfortably but were humiliated by Iceland in the round of 16, a result that cost Roy Hodgson his job. Denmark failed to qualify altogether. The expansion meant more matches, more group permutations, and a greater likelihood that old rivals would eventually be reunited.

England's first major final since 1966, sealed by a Kane rebound after Schmeichel saved the penalty.

Euro 2020, delayed by a year due to the pandemic, brought England and Denmark together for the first time since 1992, and the stakes could not have been higher. The semi-final at Wembley on 7 July 2021 was played in front of over 60,000 fans. Mikkel Damsgaard's stunning free kick gave Denmark the lead, the first goal England had conceded in the tournament. Simon Kjaer's own goal levelled it before half-time. Extra time arrived, and Harry Kane's penalty was saved by Kasper Schmeichel, only for Kane to convert the rebound. England won 2-1 and reached their first major tournament final since 1966. The match was not without controversy, with the penalty award debated long afterwards, but for England it was a night of raw, unforgettable emotion at Wembley.

Hjulmand's thunderbolt from distance denied England the win, yet both sides still advanced from Frankfurt's Group C.

Drawn together in Group C at Euro 2024 in Germany, England and Denmark met on 20 June in Frankfurt. Harry Kane gave England the lead, but Morten Hjulmand equalised with a superb long-range strike to make it 1-1. Both sides progressed from the group, with England topping it and Denmark advancing as runners-up. England went on to reach the final for the second consecutive European Championship, losing 2-1 to Spain in Berlin. Denmark were eliminated in the round of 16 by Germany. The group stage draw in Frankfurt confirmed that this fixture, once a rarity at the Euros, has become a recurring feature of the modern tournament.