Denmark at Euro 1992: the uninvited champions

Denmark's players had, by their own accounts, largely dispersed for the summer when the phone call came. Their team had finished behind Yugoslavia in qualifying and had no place at the 1992 European Championship. But when Yugoslavia were withdrawn from the tournament shortly before it began, Denmark were invited in as replacements at extremely short notice. Under-prepared and with modest expectations, they arrived less as contenders than as grateful late guests, there to make up the numbers.

Precisely because so little was expected of them, the Danes played with a freedom the pressured favourites lacked. They were well organised and hard-working, marshalled by an outstanding goalkeeper in Peter Schmeichel and carried by a spirit of collective enjoyment. With no weight of expectation on their shoulders, they grew into the tournament match by match, defending stoutly and taking their chances, gradually turning bemusement into genuine belief that something remarkable might be within reach.

In the semi-final Denmark faced the Netherlands, the defending champions and one of the finest attacking sides in the world. The match went to a penalty shoot-out, where Schmeichel's heroics helped send the holders home and the Danes through to a final almost no one had imagined for them. It was the moment the fairytale turned serious: a team that should not even have been at the tournament was now ninety minutes from being crowned champions of Europe.

The final pitted Denmark against the newly unified Germany, the reigning world champions and overwhelming favourites. Yet the Danes, fearless and superbly organised, won the match with two well-taken goals and defended their lead with total conviction. A team recalled from their holidays had beaten the best in the world to lift the trophy. Denmark's victory endures as one of football's purest fairytales, the ultimate story of a side with nothing to lose finding that anything was possible.