The Germany national team have two international matches awaiting them before the team head to Russia for the Confederations Cup. Prior to their World Cup qualifier against San Marino in Nuremberg on Saturday (20:45 CEST), the Löw’s men have flown to Copenhagen where they will take on hosts Denmark (20:45 CEST). DFB.de presents the facts ahead of the game against Germany’s northern neighbours.
POSITIVE RECORD: Germany have won 15 of their 26 matches against Denmark (3 draws, 8 losses), including five wins out of eleven when playing them away (2 draws, 4 losses). Denmark have only suffered more losses at the hands of Sweden (46) and Norway (21) than they have to Germany (15), despite having played far more games against those other two teams. All the encounters that have taken place in Denmark were friendlies, and Germany have only lost one of their last eight games played on Danish soil (5 wins, 2 draws) – a 2-1 defeat which came on November 15th, 2000. The last time the two faced each other in Denmark, the teams couldn’t be separated in a 2-2 draw on August 11th 2010. The two sides last met one another on June 17th 2012 in a European Championship group stage game in Lwiw, Ukraine, which saw Germany claim all three points thanks to goals from Lukas Podolski (19’) in his 100th international game and Lars Bender (80’), who scored the winner after Michael Krohn-Dehli got an equaliser for Denmark (24’).
THE FIRST GAME: The first duel between the neighbouring countries came on October 6th 1912 in Copenhagen’s Idraetspark. Germany lost the friendly 3-1.
THE BIGGEST GAME: The most important encounter came over 25 years ago in the 1992 European Championship final in Göteborg, Sweden. Outsiders Denmark sprung an upset against Germany by winning 2-0 with John ‘Faxe’ Jensen (19’) and Kim Vilfort (78’) finding the back of the net. Denmark hadn’t even qualified for the tournament at that point, and only came into the tournament due to Yugoslavia’s withdrawal following the outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars. Other instances where the teams have faced each other include a 2-0 loss for Germany in the 1986 Mexico World Cup group stage as Jürgen Kohler made his international debut, and a 2-0 win in Gelsenkirchen in a 1988 European Championship group stage game.
THE BIGGEST WIN: Germany handed Denmark what is to this day still their biggest defeat in the history of the team, as they ran riot in an 8-0 friendly win on May 16th 1937 in Breslau. The “Breslau XI” are considered the best pre-war team to have played for Germany. Otto Siffling bagged five goals between the 33rd and 65th minute – something only Gottfried Fuchs (10 goals against Russia in 1912) and Wilhelm Hahnemann (6 goals against Finland in 1940) have managed to do.
THE BIGGEST LOSS: Germany have lost twice by three goals. Once in a 4-1 friendly in Hamburg on October 26th 1913 – when record goalscorer Poul Nielsen became the first player to score four times against Germany in an international. The other defeat came in a 6-3 loss on September 7th 1930 in a friendly in Copenhagen.
UNCHARTED WATERS: After the first eleven games against Denmark all took place in Copenhagen, Germany took part in their first game in Bröndby, a suburb of the Danish capital which is home to around 35,000 people. The Bröndby Stadium was opened in 1965 and is the second biggest arena in Denmark, after Copenhagen’s Parken Stadium. Numerous renovations have granted it a capacity of 26,000 for international games, and the venue belongs to ten-time Danish champions Bröndby IF, who have played their home games here since its opening. The stadium hosts concerts, international matches, and even monster truck rallies. The Danish national team have only played four international games here, which have all been friendlies, resulting in a win, a draw, and two losses. Denmark were last at the stadium in a 2-1 loss to Chile on August 12th 2009. Germany’s U19 outfit were defeated 2-0 here in a friendly on September 11th 1982, and on May 5th 1984 East Germany’s U19s won 1-0 on account of a Heiko Bonan goal.
BRÖNDBY SHOCK HERTHA: Hertha BSC fans will have bad memories of the Bröndby Stadium after the capital city side lost 3-1 against Bröndby in a third-round Europa League qualifier after securing a 1-0 first leg win, on August 4th 2016. DFB player Marvin Plattenhardt returns to the scene of the upset. On the other side of the field, goalkeeper Frederik Rönnow was present for the game too. In fact, Bröndby’s home record against German teams is exceptionally strong: they have won seven of eleven encounters, and losing just twice, with the remaining two games finishing in a draw. They claimed all three points in a 1988 Champions League group stage 2-1 win against Bayern München by turning around a 1-0 deficit via goals that came in the 87th and 90th minute, including an own goal from Thomas Helmer. The Bröndby IF manager is former Leipzig and Stuttgart coach Alexander Zorniger.
A GOOD OMEN: Germany have won five of their seven internationals they’ve played on June 6th (two losses). On this exact day 55 years ago, Germany won their third group stage game against hosts Chile 2-0 in the World Cup. 16 years later, they defeated Mexico 6-0 in the World Cup hosted in Argentina. However, Germany did lose a friendly in Kaiserslautern 2-0 against a Hungary side coached by Lothar Matthäus on June 6th 2004. The game will mostly be remembered for the moment that Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski made their debuts.
DENMARK’S HISTORY: Denmark’s national team took part in their first international game on October 19th 1908 in the Olympics in London, when they defeated France’s B team 9-0. Their greatest win came in just their second international game – an Olympic semi-final that finished 17-1 to Denmark against France, which is also the biggest win ever for a European international side. Sophus Nielson, who later transferred to Holstein Kiel, succeeded in becoming the first international to score 10 goals in an official international game. Their biggest defeat was the aforementioned 8-0 loss to Germany in Breslau in 1937, and their greatest success was also the aforementioned European Championship win over Germany in 1992. No player has more caps for Denmark than Peter Schmeichel (129 caps), and his son Kasper has played 25 times for his country so far, but is out for the game against Germany due to a thigh injury. Poul ‘Tist’ Nielsen and former Stuttgart player Jon Dahl Tomasson share the honour of being Denmark’s top scorer – with 52 goals for each of them. Christian Eriksen is the current squad’s top goalscorer, with twelve goals. Denmark won the Confederations Cup (which was then still known as the King Fahd Cup) in 1995 as the defending European champions in a final against Argentina which finished 2-0. They have only participated in four World Cups, with their best run in the competition coming in the 1998 edition of the tournament in France, in which they lost the 3-2 in a quarter-final against Brazil.
DENMARK TODAY: The Red-Whites currently sit on seven points from five games with an even record of two wins and losses plus one draw in their current World Cup qualification campaign – in third place behind Poland (13 points) and Montenegro (7 points). Their 657 points on the FIFA World Rankings puts them 51st – 48 places behind third-placed Germany. It is their worst position in the rankings since the gauge was introduced in 1993. Andreas Christensen, Jannik Vestergaard (both at Borussia Mönchengladbach), Frederik Sörensen (1. FC Köln), Thomas Delaney (Werder Bremen), and Yussuf Poulsen (RB Leipzig) are the five Danish players that are currently under contract with Bundesliga clubs. Denmark captain Simon Kjaer had one year out on loan at Roma whilst technically a VfL Wolfsburg player between 2010 and 2013, and made 57 Bundesliga appearances (3 goals). In addition, William Kvist was at Stuttgart between 2011 and 2013, playing 68 Bundesliga games with them. Nicolai Jörgensen played 15 Bundesliga games for Leverkusen and Kaiserslautern between 2010 and 2012.
A NORWEGIAN ON THE SIDELINE: Norwegian Age Hareide took over the job of Denmark manager from Morten Olsen in March 2016. Olsen, who holds the record as their longest serving manager, first took the reins in 2000. Hareide played a sweeper during his playing days for Molde FK, Norwich City, and Manchester City. He began his coaching career in 1985 as a player-manager in Molde, and has also managed Bröndby, to where he will be returning tonight, as well as Helsingborg, Malmö, and Örgryte in Sweden. In his homeland of Norway he was appointed the manager of Rosenborg and Viking Stavanger, as well as assuming the duties of Norway manager between 2003 and 2008. He won the league with Helsingborg (1999), Bröndby (2002), Rosenborg (2003) and Malmö (2014), and the cup with Molde (1994), Helsingborg (1998), Rosenborg (2003), and Malmö (2014). Hareide is the only manager to have ever won a title in all three Scandinavian countries.
MEMORIES: Joachim Löw had to take his first loss as Germany manager in a friendly against Denmark in Duisburg on March 28th 2007 – his ninth game in the job. Denmark coach Age Hareide lost with Norway in a friendly against Germany which took place in Oslo on May 27th 1982, which finished 4-2. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Pierre Littbarski both scored braces for Die Mannschaft on that day.
GERMANY’S EXCEPTIONAL RECORD: Die Mannschaft have only lost one of their last 15 internationals (11 wins, 3 draws) – which was the 2-0 against France in the European Championship semi-final. More recently, Germany have accrued a record of seven wins and one draw in their last eight games. The last time Germany went so long without a defeat was just after the 2014 World Cup final, when they went 18 games undefeated. Joshua Kimmich is the only player not to have missed a single minute for Germany over the last 12 games. Die Mannschaft have also only conceded two first-half goals over their last 15 matches, and went seven games without conceding before Azerbaijan’s Dimitrij Nazarov put one past Leno in the 4-1 win for Germany. 15 goals have been scored by the Germans in their last four games away from home, and they haven’t conceded a goal in any of their last four friendlies, which consist of three wins and a draw. Their last defeat came against Slovakia in Augsburg on May 29th 2016 (3-1).
DENMARK’S FORM: Denmark have failed to win all but one of their last five games (2 draws, 2 losses) – their lone win coming against Kazakhstan in a World Cup qualifier that finished 4-1 on November 11th 2016. However, the Danes have been strong at home with four wins and a loss from their last five games played. They’ve also only lost one friendly of their last six (3 wins, 2 losses), when they were downed 1-0 by Scotland on March 29th 2016.
DEBUTANTS: Seven players could make their debut for Germany: Kevin Trapp, Marvin Plattenhardt, Kerem Demirbay, Diego Demme, Lars Stindl, Sandro Wagner, and Amin Younes are all yet to be capped for their country. Frederik Sörensen (Köln), Jesper Hansen and Lukas Lerager may receive their debuts for Denmark.
DENMARK VULNERABLE TO START: Four out of five of Denmark’s total goals conceded during this World Cup qualifying campaign have all come before the break. On the contrary, Germany have only conceded one goal (as have Croatia). Only England remain as the lone side yet to concede during this qualifying phase. Denmark have won both of their World Cup qualifiers in which they went ahead 1-0, but also lost both of their games in which they went down 1-0.
CORNER SPECIALISTS: The Germans have already scored three goals from corners in the World Cup this qualifying campaign – joint-most with Portugal. The Danes are yet to score off a corner.
