England v Denmark.....Score Predictions

Quoted from Knut Anders Fosters Voles

As a Town supporting pessimist I thought we might lose to Ukraine. After the high of beating Germany and the switch to Rome, I was expecting us to struggle.

I am far more confident about tonight.

When England drew 0-0 with Denmark last September I pointed out on here that Denmark had avoided defeat against virtually everyone apart from Belgium over the past few years. They were well organised and tough to beat. If this match would have been played a couple of months ago I would have fancied Denmark.

Many on here, including me, tipped Denmark as dark horses to go far in this tournament.

However, since the awful Eriksen cardiac arrest, Denmark have changed their system and are more like the great attacking Danish sides of the 80s than the 1992 Euro winners.

Denmark have expelled a lot of mental and physical energy over the past few weeks. Obviously, the Finland match. In the Belgium game they threw everything into the first half on an emotional night. They then thrashed Russia and Wales, still bombing forward looking for late goals in both matches.

Although Denmark beat Czech Rep, they were clearly drained by 60 mins. Christensen, Kjær and Mæhle are all carrying knocks and they had to cope with the heat, upheaval and longer journeys of playing in Baku.

Vestergaard won’t have slept worrying about facing any of England’s right wingers and is like a hurricane damaged telegraph pole waiting to be decommissioned. Mæhle struggled against Belgium whenever Lukaku moved out to the right flank and he hasn’t really been tested defensively since. Likewise Larsen at RWB is better going forward. Damsgaard rarely lasts more than 70 mins.

Despite the scorelines, Denmark have had 5 tough matches. They were still pushing for goals late on against Russia and Wales, expending a lot of effort, and that showed in the second half against Czech Republic.

By contrast England have played:

Croatia - tough match in the sun but controlled the match
Scotland - we didn’t appear to expend much effort! None actually!
Czech Rep - 2nd half was like a friendly
Germany - tough match
Ukraine - game was over after 50 mins

Our squad must be so much fresher, mentally and physically.

Quoted from Toppy

A very good summary (and 1000th post) from Knut but I don't think the loss of Eriksen resulted in a change of system. When Kasper Hjulmand took over as the national coach in 2020 he inherited a very good team with a good team spirit who were hard to beat. Since then, he has introduced a much more potent attacking philosophy along with a number of new, young players. He is also an astute tactician and has shown himself to be quite willing to change formations during a game.