England were hustled out of their stride by a Danish team surprised to find themselves in the finals following the barring of war-torn Yugoslavia. Concentrating on quick and incisive counter attacks, it was Denmark who looked most likely to break the deadlock and England had a lucky escape when a shot from John Jensen struck a post with goalkeeper Chris Woods beaten. The English defence missed the steadying influence of injured Mark Wright, but Carlton Palmer gave a good account of himself against a Danish side in which Brian Laudrup was outstanding as the orchestrator of their attacks. The Danes got better and better as the tournament wore on and finally emerged as the unexpected champions.

There had been nothing to suggest in the early stages of England's opening European Championship match that Graham Taylor's side would not make a winning start to their bid for success.  Denmark's late summons to replace the outcast Yugoslavs had left them short on preparation, and Taylor's team was going into the game with just one defeat in his two years as national manager.

To the surprise of those people who had believed he would make his victory attempt with three centre-halves, England began the game with a 4-4-2 line-up.  The loss of three right full-backs through injury had left the squad without a recognised right-back and Keith Curle was asked to fill an emergency and play there against the Danes.  Alan Smith was chosen as striking partner to Gary Lineker with the manager clearly feeling the Danes might be vulnerable in the air.

England might have had the ideal start when Lineker's dash down the right flank and cross caught the Danes flat and shapeless.  But David Platt, having anticipated the cross and made his run, arrived a yard ahead of the ball and was unable to adjust to finish off what would have been a wonderful opening move.  This was to be one of several chances falling to England in the first half where there seemed no real cause for alarm, other than from the measured and finely weighted passes of Brian Laudrup.  Platt could himself have had a hat-trick on another day, while Paul Merson engineered a wonderful chance for himself, only to drive the ball across the face of goal.

With Curle finding the right-back position uncomfortable after an early caution, the Danes were beginning to cause alarm with their quick acceleration.  Bent Christensen might well have embarrassed England, but lifted a fine opportunity created by Laudrup over the crossbar and in the 66th minute John Jensen hit the England upright.

The introduction of Tony Daley for Curle in the 62nd minute brought a flicker of hope as Peter Schmeichel was forced into a tip-over save.  But then the Danes had yet another glorious opportunity in the 77th minute when Laudrup was through on goal only to steer his shot wide of the target.  What had started as an encouraging performance ended with some worrying aspects for the England management team who had anticipated getting off to a winning start against Denmark. - The F.A. England Year 1992-93, Stanley Paul & Co Ltd, London, 1992, pages 17-18.

Source Notes

Five of the most complete national team websites in the world are devoted to Denmark's national team.  They are remarkably consistent in their incredibly detailed records, but there is disagreement among them on whether this 1992 European Championship match against England was Bent Christensen's 17th or 18th appearance and consequently on whether he earned 26 or 27 career caps.  It seems there were two Bent Christensens', and the crux of the disagreement is which of them made his debut against Poland on May 18, 1988.  Both Bent Christensens' appeared against Malta on February 8, 1989, and the sources differ over which Bent Christensen was then making his debut and which was making his second appearance.  The Dansk Bodspil-Union website has the Bent Christensen who played against England in 1992 also appearing in the 1988 Poland match, and because of its official status, we have gone along with it and credited him with his 18th of 27 appearances in a career starting in 1988 rather than 1989.  Needless to say, the sources also differ over whether the other Bent Christensen earned three or four career caps and whether his career began in 1988 or 1999.  This sort of confusion no doubt explains why the Football Association uses initials to distinguish between English players bearing the same name, as in the case of the two players named Gary Stevens on the 1986 World Cup squad. - PY

TheFA.com
Original newspaper reports
Original television broadcast
Official Teamsheet
Rothman's Yearbooks
Mike Payne's England: The Complete Post-War Record (Breedon Books Publishing Company, Derby, U.K., 1993)
Norman Giller, Football Author
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CG/PY