The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 223: The Danish Fairy Tale of the European Cup

"The European Football Championship was a fantastic fairy tale. The Danish team, which played as a substitute, won the championship by defeating strong opponents in an incredible way, creating a miracle in the history of world football. The magic of Danish football is as fantastic as Andersen's fairy tales."

--Inscription

In the summer of 1992, the th European Football Championship was held in Sweden.

The eight teams participating in the finals are Sweden, Scotland, the Netherlands, Germany, France, England, Denmark and the Commonwealth of Independent States (formerly the Soviet Union). After the preliminaries, they gathered in Sweden to compete for the final championship.

This European Cup is destined to be engraved in the history of football, because the beginning, process and result of this cup are so special. There are many new faces in the participating teams. Sweden, as the host, participated for the first time, as did Scotland and the CIS. The former Soviet Union disintegrated during the qualifiers, which was also a major event in Europe. In addition, East and West Germany made it to the finals after reunification in 1990, which also attracted attention. Yugoslavia, which originally qualified, was banned for political reasons, and Denmark, as the best substitute team, participated in the finals instead.

No one expected that the Danish team would show its dark horse qualities in the European Cup and start a magical fairytale journey. Before the European Cup began, no one was optimistic about the Danish team. A team that could not even qualify for the qualifiers could not become a favorite to win the championship. The Danish team was surprised and happy when they received the notice at short notice. They immediately canceled the players' vacation and urgently summoned the players to prepare. At that time, the Danish team's top star Michel Laudrup was famous, but he had a bad relationship with the coach and refused to play for the country. This situation made the Danish coach Nelson very passive and the team's strength was also affected. As a result, the Danish team was not optimistic about the media. After all, they lost all three games in the group stage of the 1988 European Cup, and it was estimated that they would just play soy sauce in this session.

The Danish team was placed in the first group, with England, France and Sweden as their opponents. In the first match, Denmark played against England. Due to the injuries of several players, the Three Lions performed poorly as a whole. Denmark was able to patiently deal with the situation and finally tied the game 0-0. In the second group match, Denmark lost 0-1 to the host Sweden. The team performed poorly and was lucky to lose only one goal. After two games, the Danish team only got one point and seemed to be just a role to accompany the prince to study. But in the last round of the group stage, the Danish team unexpectedly defeated the French team with Platini and Cantona 2-1, successfully qualified for the group and entered the semi-finals.

Denmark's semi-final opponent was the defending champion Netherlands, which had the invincible trio and Dennis Bergkamp. Before the game, everyone was optimistic about them. Danish star Jensen later recalled, "We couldn't imagine how to face such a strong opponent. They had superstars like Rijkaard, Van Basten, and Dennis Bergkamp, ​​and they were also the defending champions. But before the game, I felt the arrogance of the Dutch. They didn't take us seriously at all, which aroused our fighting spirit."

This semi-final became one of the great games of this cup.

As expected, the Netherlands took the advantage after the opening, and Denmark adopted a strategy of steady defense and counterattack to compete with the Windmill Army. The confidence of the Danish team in steady defense and attack was the unlimited trust in the main goalkeeper Schmeichel. Facing the massive attack of the Orange Army, facing countless threats in front of the goal, various headers and kicks, and shots of various angles and strengths, Schmeichel, who was like a demon, took them all for granted. This tall goalkeeper, known as the "Great Dane" of Denmark, with the full assistance of his teammates on the back line, turned into an eight-armed Nezha, guarding the goal tightly against wind and rain, and interpreting defense into an art.

Schmeichel performed bravely, making many saves, almost single-handedly defusing the opponent's entire team's attack line. The Danish players also defended with all their strength and bravely intercepted to help Schmeichel relieve the pressure. In the end, Schmeichel relied on calmness and rationality to perform extremely well, with accurate predictions and choices, and he blocked left and right, picked up high and caught low, defusing the opponent's attack.

The Danish team was in a passive position for a long time, but Schmeichel's bravery greatly encouraged their morale, allowing them to stabilize their position and then launch a counterattack. Laudrup Jr. passed the ball accurately to his teammate Larsson in the frontcourt, and Larsson scored a header to open the scoring, giving Denmark a 1-0 lead!

The experienced Netherlands did not panic. They launched a fiercer attack. The young striker Bergkamp broke into the penalty area and shot calmly. This shot made Schmeichel helpless and could only watch the opponent equalize the score. After the two sides tied, the Danish team continued to play steadily and withstood the opponent's airtight attack. In the 33rd minute, they launched another counterattack and easily tore through the opponent's defense line that was too far forward. Larsson scored again, helping Denmark take a 2-1 advantage.

After Denmark took the lead again, facing the full-force attack of the Dutch team, they retreated across the board and set up a defensive formation. All Danish players retreated to the 35-meter area to defend, and they were densely packed in two layers of buses. Even the dense defense could not withstand the breakthrough of the Dutch team, but every time at the critical moment, Schmeichel would guard the goal in front of the goal. Even if the Dutch team had a chance in front of the goal, they could not easily find a good chance to score, let alone score a goal.

After taking the lead, Schmeichel became even more excited. Facing countless shots from Dutch players, he seemed to have turned into a Thousand-Armed Guanyin, diving left and right, catching and defending, and always able to turn danger into safety.

Schmeichel withstood the test again and again, but 4 minutes before the end, the Dutch storm attack finally tore through the Danish defense. The defender was too confused in defense and lost his mind, fouled directly in the penalty area, and gave the opponent a valuable penalty.

Rijkaard withstood the pressure and scored the penalty kick, and the two sides tied again 2-2.

In the subsequent overtime, the Netherlands continued to attack wildly, while Denmark defended calmly. But the Netherlands had to accept a draw after the stormy attack, while Denmark stubbornly withstood the opponent's fierce attack. In the second half of the overtime, almost the entire Danish team defended the penalty area, blocking the space in the penalty area with their bodies. Schmeichel remained highly focused and played stably, becoming the most critical guardian of Denmark. Even in the face of the opponent's several shots into the penalty area and powerful long shots outside the penalty area, Schmeichel was fearless and made continuous wonderful saves to block various shots from the Dutch team.

Penalty shootout!

The Dutch team, which was the favorite before the game, was dragged into a penalty shootout. The Danish players were very stable in their penalty kicks and scored all of them, while the Dutch had problems. Danish goalkeeper Schmeichel put a lot of pressure on them, and he finally saved a penalty kick from the opponent, helping the Danish team advance to the final with a score of 5:4!

The biggest star of the Dutch team at that time was Van Basten, but he was knocked out twice by Schmeichel in that game. The first time, Van Basten broke into the Danish team's territory and faced Schmeichel, and he made a long-range lob shot. It must be said that it was a beautiful arc. When the fans thought the ball would fly over Schmeichel's hand and fly into the goal, a magical scene happened. Schmeichel stretched his body and tried his best to jump up to save the ball. His outstretched fingers just touched the ball and lifted it over the crossbar.

"This is incredible, is this a flying Dane?!" the commentator on the sidelines exclaimed.

The second time Schmeichel faced Van Basten's challenge was in the final penalty shootout. This time Schmeichel saved Van Basten's penalty and once again had the last laugh in the match!

After defeating the 1984 European Cup champion France and the 1988 European Cup champion Netherlands in succession, Denmark met the 1980 European Cup champion and 1990 World Cup champion Germany in the final.

June 1992, 6 was the day of the final, and the Danish team took a low profile and attacked against the world champions.

At the beginning of the game, the German team really took the upper hand, while the Danish team, which had been silent and low-key before the game, suddenly exploded. Although they still attached great importance to defense, they played quick counterattacks with great vigor.

In the 18th minute of the first half, Denmark got the ball in the backcourt and launched an attack. When they advanced to the frontcourt, the German team was still slowly deploying defense. As a result, Jensen of the Danish team shot directly outside the penalty area. This shot did not seem to be very threatening, but Jensen kicked it into the dead corner and hit the goal. Denmark took the lead 1-0!

The subsequent game undoubtedly entered a situation of attack and defense. The German team pushed the defense line to the opponent's half, forcing the Danish team to retreat and return to their own backcourt to defend. The Germans opened fire, but Ruiter and Buchwald's shots were saved by Schmeichel, and Hassler and Effenberg's attacks were also in vain, and they did not even form a threatening shot.

Denmark led 1-0 in the first half!

After the start of the second half, the Danish team did not retreat across the board, but took the initiative to set up a front line in the midfield and directly intercepted and strangled the opponent's attack. Not only that, the Danish team also took the initiative to attack, taking advantage of the opponent's impatience, and directly launched an attack after stealing the ball in the midfield. After several attempts to quickly advance to the German team's penalty area, the Danish team returned empty-handed because they did not invest enough manpower. However, such attempts also greatly eroded the Germans' fighting spirit, and made the German team dare not press all people to attack and completely ignore defense. The German team did not perform well in the backward situation. They seemed anxious but had few solutions. The organized offensive and opportunities in front of the goal were not even as many as the Dutch team, so it was not too difficult for the Danish team to defend.

In the 78th minute of the second half, Denmark once again launched a sharp counterattack. When the Danes intercepted the ball and advanced to the German backcourt, the grass was so empty that one could ride a horse at full speed. Denmark's Wilfort easily broke through and scored Denmark's second goal!

After Denmark led 2-0, they were more confident in defense and rhythm control, while the German team managed to organize several attacks but to no avail.

Finally, the referee blew the whistle and the game ended. Denmark defeated Germany and won the 1992 European Cup.

The Danes on the field were crazy... Schmeichel was the best player in the final. Although the Germans' attack was not as abnormal as the Dutch, Schmeichel still made many key saves. He stood in front of the goal like a god, and all the Germans' shots were blocked one by one.

That year, the German team had many superstars and was much stronger than Denmark. But even Klinsmann, an aerial king, had more than one absolute chance to score, even though the German team had legendary players like Brehmer and Effenberg, even Hasler, a midfield master, they were still helpless against Schmeichel and could not break through the Danish team.

As the main goalkeeper of the Red Devils, Schmeichel was truly baptized by the competition and stood out in this European Cup. The goal he guarded was bombarded by countless firepower from European powers, but Schmeichel was not only in an excellent mental state, but also had perfect skills, physical fitness, will and experience. He guarded the team like a steel wall, blocked the Danish goal, and finally sent the team to the peak of honor with his own hands.

Denmark won the European Cup, and Schmeichel became the best goalkeeper of the new generation in Europe. He was named the "World's Best Goalkeeper" in 1992.

European sports newspapers were full of praises, "Schmeichel carried the entire Danish team", "The Danish team is Schmeichel's team", "Schmeichel tells us that a good goalkeeper can also bring a championship", "Schumi tells you that nothing is impossible", "Schmeichel is Denmark's national hero"...

There cannot be more praise, almost all the good words have been used to describe Schmeichel.

Ferguson, who was far away in Manchester, was also ecstatic. "Schmeichel deserves all the praise. He is the best goalkeeper in the world!"

This European Cup will be remembered in history for a long time, and the story of the Danish team is full of magic. The classic comment about them is this: "The Danes came to the dinner last, became the protagonists, and took away all the cake."