Denmark have performed above and beyond expectation levels at Euro 2012 but that late goal conceded when going down in defeat to Portugal has hurt their hopes of qualification going into Sunday night’s final round of group fixtures in Group B.
With the Danes now needing something against the dangerous Germans, Morten Olsen’s side are going to need to attack Germany which could lead them exposed to the ruthless Die Mannschaft.
Denmark’s defensive rearguard hasn’t been as solid as they’d have liked. Portugal notched three times while quite frankly, the Dutch could and should have grabbed a couple in the opener. So keeping Germany at bay for 90 minutes looks far from likely.
Germany started the tournament fairly slowly when edging out Portugal but they came to life against their bitter rivals the Netherlands and the 2-1 scoreline didn’t reflect their superiority.
Maarten Stekelenburg made some fine saves while Bastian Schweinsteiger was at his brilliant best, pulling the strings in midfield and supplying those further forward with some sumptuous passes. With Mario Gomez having bagged three goals in two games, the Danish backline looks in for a hard time and we're more than happy with the 8/11 chalked up.
Were this a domestic fixture we feel the gulf in class would be represented by a much wider price gap so we’ll keep things simple by backing Germany to win at 8/11.
Key trends –
- Denmark haven’t lost to Germany since 1996 and have won three of their six meetings.
- Five of Denmark’s eight qualifying fixtures saw under 2.5 goals scored.
- Miroslav Klose netted nine goals in qualifying and is his country’s second top scorer with 63 goals.
