The
FIFA World Cup is an international
association football competition contested by the
men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (
FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in
1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to
World War II.
The tournament consists of two parts, the
qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the
2006 tournament final.
Denmark qualified for the first time in
1986, where they won all three of their group stage matches including a 2–0 victory against title contenders
West Germany, but were eliminated by
Spain in the next round. Since then, the Danish national team has regularly qualified for FIFA World Cup finals and made their sixth and most recent appearance at
Qatar 2022. Their best performance was in
1998, where they reached the quarter-finals.
Denmark made their first World Cup appearance in the
1986 World Cup, and with the attacking duo of
Michael Laudrup and
Preben Elkjær. In their first match against
Scotland, Denmark won 1–0 with the only goal coming from Preben Elkjær after he burst into the penalty area before shooting left-footed low into the right corner of the net. The team surprised the world, sweeping the group, including a 6–1 thrashing of
Uruguay.[1] In the second round, Denmark faced
Spain losing 5–1 on the strength of four
Emilio Butragueño goals; the first Spain goal was caused by a miss-timed backpass by
Jesper Olsen to Butragueño, an unfortunate action subsequently coined as "a real Jesper Olsen" ("en rigtig Jesper Olsen"). The phrase would live on for 13 years and was repeated by the Danish TV commentators in 1999, when an identical backpass was carried out by
Jesper Grønkjær to
Filippo Inzaghi on the former's debut for Denmark.[2]
Under coach
Bo "Bosse" Johansson, the
1998 FIFA World Cup saw the revival of the Danish team, starring both Laudrup brothers in their last international campaign. After beating
Saudi Arabia 1–0, drawing with
South Africa and losing 2–1 to later champions
France in mediocre games, the Danish team qualified to the knockout stages as second in the group. In the next game however, Denmark played some of the best football of the entire tournament, beating
Nigeria 4–1 in a fantastic game. In the quarterfinal against
Brazil, the Danes went out with a beautiful 2–3 defeat to the later silver medalists, in a very close and emotional game.
Denmark qualified for the
2002 FIFA World Cup, but despite impressive results in the group stage, especially the 2–0 win against reigning World Cup winners
France, Denmark didn't manage to advance any further as they were defeated with a 0–3 score in the round of 16 against
England.
At the 2010 World Cup, Denmark was grouped with
Japan,
Cameroon and the
Netherlands. Denmark lost the first match 2–0 to Netherlands, but then had a vital 2–1 victory against Cameroon, which enabled further advancement in case of victory over Japan, the final match of the group stage. Denmark, however, lost 3–1, thereby failing to reach their goal of advancing to the round of 16 for the first time.
Japan opened the scoring in the 17th minute from a direct free kick taken by
Keisuke Honda – only the second goal scored from a free kick in the tournament.[6] Honda, standing to Danish goalkeeper
Thomas Sørensen's left, kicked the ball with great force; Sørensen initially moved to his left, and as the ball sailed past the wall, he shifted direction, but could not recover in time to make the save. Japan's second goal came thirteen minutes later, also from a direct free kick, this time by
Yasuhito Endō. Standing outside the penalty area directly in front of the Danish goal, he curled the ball around the wall. Sørensen had been standing on the right side of his goal and could not move to his left fast enough. Endō almost scored from yet another free kick early in the second half. This time, Sørensen appeared to have difficulty judging the path of the ball, and was only able to palm it away at the last second, where it caromed off the goalpost.
Denmark needed to win this game in order to advance and increased their attacks accordingly. Late in the second half,
Christian Eriksen put his shot over the goal and
Søren Larsen hit the goalpost. They were finally able to score in the 82nd minute. When
Makoto Hasebe was adjudged to have fouled
Daniel Agger inside the penalty area, Denmark were awarded a penalty kick.
Jon Dahl Tomasson took the shot, which was saved by
Eiji Kawashima; the goalkeeper, however, was unable to control the rebound, which fell to Tomasson, and he was able to put it in the goal. Japan scored their final goal in the 87th minute. Honda dribbled into the penalty area, forcing Sørensen to attempt to block a potential shot, but Honda passed it to substitute
Shinji Okazaki, who merely had to put the ball into an empty net.
The victory was Japan's second World Cup tournament victory on foreign soil, and only their second against a European team. Japan finished group play in second place with six points, and advanced to the knockout round for the second time in their history, and the first time on foreign soil.[7] Denmark ended in third with three points. This was the first time Denmark failed to get past the group stage in the World Cup.
^Sheringham, Sam (24 June 2010).
"Denmark 1-3 Japan". BBC Sport. British Broadcasting Corporation.
Archived from the original on 24 June 2010. Retrieved 25 June 2010.
1 Considered a successor team by FIFA, or have competed under another name(s). 2 Have been member of multiple confederations. 3 Team and national federation no longer exist.