Soccer Betting - Danish Superliga
History - Facts - Winners - Teams - Standings 07/08
Important Facts
The Denmark National football team is controlled by the Danish Football Association and since 1908 has represented Denmark in international competitions. The team has been a solidly competitive side in international football since the mid-1980s, with the triumph in the 1992 European Championships as its most well-known victory.
As of May 2006, Denmark is ranked 11th in the FIFA World Rankings and it is the strongest country not present at the next 2006 World Cup. In the qualification process to Euro 2008, Denmark is placed in Group F with Northern Ireland, Liechtenstein, Latvia, Iceland, Spain and the archrivals from Sweden.
Apart from the national senior team, Denmark competes with a women's national team as well and has teams at various youth levels for both men and women. Additionally, there is a league national team or B-team of the best players from the domestic Danish Superliga.
On September 9, 1992 the rebuilt Parken has been the sole stadium of the men's senior national team matches, basically the biggest venue in Denmark of 42,000 seats, was opened with a 1-2 defeat by Germany. In 2006 the Parken monopoly of national team matches was broken, a friendly game at NRGi Park, with World Cup 2006 participants Paraguay as the opponent and with almost 19,000 of the 22,227 tickets were sold within the first hour of sale.
Apart from the national team, Denmark is likewise famous for its traveling fans, known as roligans. The roligans have since developed an image of easy-going nature and rabid support and they were collectively given the FIFA FairPlay Award at the 1984 European Championships.
Denmark's finest hour in the international competitions came in the Euro 1992. The Danes initially failed to qualify, as they finished second behind Yugoslavia in their group, and the star of the team Michael Laudrup decided to quit the national team over tactical differences with Coach Richard Møller Nielsen. Contrary to popular belief the team did not rally home from seaside vacations to compete as the majority of players were already grouped to play a friendly match with the CIS when the Denmark team got the spot at the tournament.
As defending champions at the Euro 1996, Denmark disappointed with a lack of performance and the team was eliminated in the group stage. The team’s coach Richard Moller became a controversy and was released of his work contract in fall 1995. The new coach was the sympathetic Swede Bo "Bosse" Johansson, who gave the team a more offensive strategy, and the 1998 World Cup saw the revival of the Danish team. The Danes went out with a beautiful 2-3 quarter-final defeat to later silver medalists Brazil.
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