Denmark Sweden Rivalry To Play Out In Play Offs

Denmark vs Sweden
• Euro 2016 qualification play-off
• Two legs in November
• Rivals in do or die struggle

The temptation, upon hearing that Denmark have drawn long time local rivals Sweden in the Euro 2016 play-off fixtures in November, is to litter one's writing with quotations from Hamlet, the distinct air of a tragedy in the making on the wind. The Denmark Sweden rivalry, both on and off the football pitch, ensures that whomever ends up going to the finals in France next year will leave a neighboring national team heartbroken in their wake.

Those that like to bet on sports in Denmark and regularly back their national side's efforts on the football pitch will have wagered on games against their longtime rival, and neighboring Scandinavian country, Sweden before. They're usually hard fought pride-driven matches that in the modern era date back to being placed in the same first round group in the Euro 92 tournament. That encounter ended up with Sweden 1-0 up at full time. Something they never let Danes forget.



Certainly there was a rivalry before that, and since, but it is those matches that have seen them go up against each other head to head that have underlined the Denmark Sweden rivalry. Thankfully for the two sides this is not as frequent as perhaps might be imagined, the risk of trauma to each just as bad as for the other, but it does happen on occasion, and when it does there's often more to it than merely the football. It is perhaps only slightly worse when one side fails to qualify at all.

Watching from the sidelines of elimination whilst your neighbors gleefully swan off to a World Cup or Euro finals for which you didn't yourselves qualify is terribly galling, especially as the tabloid press in both countries takes a distinct interest in stoking the Denmark Sweden rivalry whenever possible albeit in a slightly tongue in cheek manner that doesn't quite reach the xenophobic levels of England Germany matches and press coverage.

Scandinavians Evenly Matched All Too Often

1994 saw the Danes fail to make the World Cup, and the Swedes fail to make the subsequent one in 1998, having also missed out on the Euro 96 finals. The two teams then got slightly better results at the turn of the century both getting to the Euro 2000 finals and doing equally well, as indeed they both did in the 2002 World Cup, but in 2004 the two teams came up against each other once again in the Euro competition, the Denmark Sweden rivalry still very much alive.


On the day it ended 2-2 with barely a sliver of give in either team, the result a fair reflection of two sides quite equally balanced as stalwart defensive set-ups with good break-away skills at the other end of the pitch. The late equalizer from Mattias Jonson saving Sweden's blushes as they remained at the top of group C, although the Italians made an awful fuss that year because they were beaten 2-1 by Bulgaria and their goal-keeper Gianluigi Buffon proved himself a buffoon by accusing the Scandinavians of match-fixing.

This was patently laughable as any two teams fixing a match would actually have to like each other in the first place and it's quite obvious the Denmark Sweden rivalry prevents that being true in their case. UEFA didn't investigate the claims gambling news coverage had made the charges appear ridiculous, which is ironic given how ridiculous UEFA is now made to look by news coverage. The 2006 world cup was a disappointment for the Danes as they failed to qualify and watched the Swedes go to Germany without them.

Denmark Sweden Rivalry Comes To A Head

It is perhaps this disappointment that played a part in the seminal moment of the Denmark Sweden rivalry. It's 2008 and the two teams, drawn in the same group, face each other in a two-legged Euro qualification match, the stadium in Copenhagen for the first leg packed. Danish fans in the stands, had to watch in horror as Sweden's Johan Elmander scored two and Petter Hansson a third within 26 minutes of kick off. It was a nightmare. But then Denmark fought back and with goals from Daniel Agger, Jon Dahl Tomasson and Leon Andreasen they'd managed a superb fight back to 3-3.


Then it all went horrifically wrong. In the 89th minute Christian Poulsen hit Markus Rosenberg, of Sweden, in the stomach and the referee promptly awarded the Swedes a penalty sending off the hapless Poulsen with a deserved red-card. This went down very badly with the Danish fans, one of which ran onto the pitch and attempted to physically assault the referee, only stopped from doing so by Danish player Michael Gravgaard. The referee then abandoned the match and awarded it as a 3-0 win to Sweden, and the Danes missed out on the finals (the other leg ending in a nil-nil draw).

Since then the Denmark Sweden rivalry has rolled onward they both made the finals of the Euro 2012 competition, and both failed to make it to the 2014 World Cup, and now, and now they meet in a do-or-die play-off to see which of them makes the Euro 2016 finals in France. Whatever happens it's going to be high tension stuff and those that take advantage of Danish gambling laws to back their national side at ComeOn! Sportsbook, etc. will find the Danes are garnering just 3.20 against the Swedes 2.25, so we know who the bookies think will be staying home next summer.