A look at the country’s demographics, football history and its squad status prior to the Qatar World Cup 2022.
Number of inhabitants: approx. 5.9 million.
Continent: Europe
Confederation: UEFA
National Football Association: DBU (Dansk Boldspil-Union)
Number of members: around 370,000. (6.2% of total population)
International trophies won: 1x European Championship, 1x FIFA Confederations Cup
Best World Cup result: Quarter-finals in 1998
Key Players
In the past: Peter Schmeichel, Dennis Rommedahl,Jon Dahl Tomasson, Thomas Helveg, Michael & Brian Laudrup, Morten Olsen.
Key current players: Schmeichel, Christensen, Höjbjerg, Eriksen, Skov Olsen, Damsgaard.
Coach, formation and possible lineup
Coach: Kasper Hjulmand. (since 2020)
Typical formation: 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3
Possible lineup:
- GK: Kasper Schmeichel (Nice)
- LB: Joakim Maehle (Atalanta Bergamo)
- RB: Rasmus Kristensen (Leeds)
- LCB: Joachim Andersen (Crystal Palace)
- RCB: Andreas Christensen (Barcelona)
- DM: Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg (Tottenham)
- CM: Thomas Delaney (Sevilla)
- CM: Christian Eriksen (Man Utd)
- RW: Andreas Skov Olsen (Club Brugge)
- LW: Mikkel Damsgaard (Brentford)
- ST: Kasper Dolberg (Sevilla)
Age Report
Players aged 25 or under in the current lineup: 5
Players aged 32 or over in the current lineup: 1
Only 1 player in this lineup will (most likely) be playing their last World Cup this year: Kasper Schmeichel.
There are 5 players in this lineup that can play (at least) two more: Maehle, Kristensen, Dolberg, Skov Olsen, Damsgaard.
The remaining 5 players could play in one or two more World Cups.
Youngest player: Mikkel Damsgaard, born 3 July 2000 (22)
Oldest player: Kasper Schmeichel, born 5 November 1986 (35)
Average squad age: 26.6
World Cup Qatar – Group D
Fixtures:
Tuesday 22 November Denmark vs Tunisia
Saturday 26 November France vs Denmark
Wednesday 30 November Australia vs Denmark
Our view:
Denmark. Semi-finalists at the last European Championship, not bad for a country with less than 6 million inhabitants. They performed exceptionally well in their qualification for this World Cup, though it could be said the opposition wasn’t too fierce. In the Nations League however, they managed to beat World Champions France twice. As luck would have it, France is one of their opponents for the group stage in Qatar as well… It will certainly be an entertaining couple of matches, after which I definitely see Denmark progressing to the next round.
