Qatar 2022 Team Preview: The Danish Dynamite

Written by Patrick Echatah

Previous World Cup Appearances: 2018
Nickname: Danish Dynamite
Titles: 0
Best finish: Quarter final (1998)
World Cup record: W9 D5 L6
Goals: 30
Biggest win: 6-1
Player to watch: Christian Eriksen
Ranking: 10
Head Coach: Kasper Hjulmand
Fixtures: Tunisia (November 22), France (November 26), Australia (November 30)

The Danish Dynamite have regularly qualified for FIFA World Cup and will make their sixth appearance in Qatar 2022. Their best performance was in 1998, where they reached the quarter finals.

Previous World Cup

The first time Denmark entered the tournament was for the 1958 edition in Sweden. However, they lost all four of their qualifying matches to England and the Republic of Ireland. The Danish Dynamite qualified for the first time in 1986, where they won all three of their Group Stage matches including a 2-0 against title contenders West Germany, but were eliminated by Spain in the next round.

Denmark had a solid showing at the 1998 World Cup. With both Laudrup brothers in their final international campaign, Denmark managed to advance from its group despite some mediocre performances. However, the round of 16 match saw them play their best match at the tournament, dismantling Nigeria 4-1. In the quarter-finals, they lost 2-3 to eventual finalists Brazil in a closely contested and entertaining match.

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 to Japan and were untimely eliminated from the tournament courtesy of -2 goal difference in their group. At the 2018 world cup Denmark finished second in group C with 5 points, they eventually lost to eventual finalist Croatia on penalties in the round of 16 after playing out a 1-1 draw in regulation time.

Denmark’s 2022 World Cup squad

Goalkeepers: Kasper Schmeichel (Nice), Oliver Christensen (Hertha Berlin).

Defenders: Simon Kjaer (AC Milan), Joachim Andersen (Crystal Palace), Joakim Maehle (Atalanta), Andreas Christensen (Barcelona), Rasmus Kristensen (Leeds United), Jens Stryger Larsen (Trabzonspor), Victor Nelsson (Galatasaray), Daniel Wass (Brondby).

Midfielders: Thomas Delaney (Sevilla), Mathias Jensen (Brentford), Christian Eriksen (Manchester United), Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (Tottenham).

Forwards: Andreas Skov Olsen (Club Bruges), Jesper Lindstrom (Eintracht Frankfurt), Andreas Cornelius (Copenhagen), Martin Braithwaite (Espanyol), Kasper Dolberg (Sevilla), Mikkel Damsgaard (Brentford), Jonas Wind (Wolfsburg).

All eyes on Eriksen

For five horrendous minutes last June, Christian Eriksen was – in his own words – “gone from this world”. At that stage, anything beyond his survival would have seemed like too much to hope and pray for. Yet, Eriksen was back playing Premier League football within nine months and in March, 287 days after his cardiac arrest, he made his international comeback, scoring inside two minutes of entering the field. Fast forward another few months and the midfielder has swapped Brentford for Manchester United, and is once again pulling the midfield strings for both club and country. It is, beyond dispute, already the stuff of football fairy tales. And if another fantastic chapter is to be added in Qatar, Denmark are sure to need their star playmaker to help write it.

What To Expect

Denmark have been impressive since the European Championship in 2021, they shocked the world by getting to the semi finals of the competition. The Danish Dynamite may have lost twice to Croatia in the Nations League but they beat France twice. In Paris they won 2-1 against a full-strength French team. In the final game before the World Cup, they beat the world champions 2-0 at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen. Denmark topped their qualifying group four points ahead of Scotland, winning nine of their 10 games and with a goal difference of a massive +27.

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