Nick Ames was at BVB Stadion Dortmund tonight, and his verdict has landed. Here it is! Congratulations to Germany, commiserations to Denmark, thanks for reading this MBM, and we hope that everyone in the stadium arrives home to some nice warm towels. Nighty night!
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Post-match postbag. “With Switzerland putting Italy to the sword, and this easy win over Denmark, the feeling that Germany was wobbling has washed away in the rain. They look well-poised to go all the way. Admittedly, we’ll know a lot more about their level once they face Spain next round. Or a Georgia which has triumphed over the entire Iberian peninsula” – Kári Tulinius
“Michael Oliver doing his best to make sure that at least one Englishman is having a decisive influence at the Euros. Only a little sour grapes in that statement. Greetings from Denmark” – Mikkel Jensen
“With lightning having struck the Denmark net twice, Hjulmand’s men must be feeling something rotten in Dortmund” – Peter Oh
Now there’s a scoreline that doesn’t tell the whole story. An early Nico Schlotterbeck goal ruled out for Joshua Kimmich’s block on Andreas Skov Olsen. A biblical tempest. Joachim Andersen’s fine finish chalked off for a marginal offside on Thomas Delaney. Seconds later, Andersen concedes a penalty after handling David Raum’s cross, though you’ve seen referees be more lenient with the players so close to each other. Then an exquisite long pass by Schlotterbeck to release Jamal Musiala, who conjures a finish to match. It’s difficult to argue that Germany weren’t the better side and deserved winners, but the Danes didn’t have much luck and ran them close. Germany make it to the quarter-finals of a major tournament for the first time since Euro 2016, and the hosts will continue their party until next Friday at least, when they face either Spain or Georgia in Stuttgart!
FULL TIME: Germany 2-0 Denmark
Germany get some payback for the Euro 92 final. Denmark will always have Gothenburg.
90 min +5: Nothing comes of Germany’s corner.
90 min +4: Denmark are giving it one last push, though, and another ball into the mixer forces Rudiger to steam in and hoick behind for another corner, with Vestergaard lurking. But again the corner’s no good. Germany counter once more and nearly score this time, Havertz attempting to chip Schmeichel, who turns the ball around the post.
90 min +3: Nope. Play restarts, and Schmeichel blooters long. The ball pings off Anton and out for a corner. A goal here would alter the mood … but the corner’s easily cleared. Germany attempt to break but that’s no good either.
90 min +2: … however VAR is going to take a look. Possibly onside after all?
90 min +1: A long ball down the inside-right channel. Füllkrug takes it down, then Wirtz takes over. He’s clear. He draws Schmeichel and dinks in slow-motion, gracefully and cheekily, into the net. But the flag pops up for offside.
90 min: Havertz sashays down the right and finds Wirtz on the edge of the D. Wirtz shoots straight at Schmeichel, who may have had problems otherwise. There will be five additional minutes.
89 min: Wirtz dinks a ball down the left for Henrichs, who cuts infield before blootering a wild shot high and wide from 25 yards.
88 min: Sane makes way for Waldemar Anton.
87 min: Denmark push Germany back with a few passes hither and yon, but then the flag pops up for offside against Kristiansen, and the clock ticks on.
85 min: This game is petering out, and the home fans don’t mind a bit. Meanwhile Mac Millings is on tour in Germany, and here’s his latest missive: “I’ve not much to add regarding this game (no change there), but I can report that I was in a Croatian Uber (it’s like a regular Uber, but in Croatia) when Switzerland scored both their goals against Italy, and the driver’s reaction each time was a joy to witness. Or would have been, had I not been the passenger, worrying that maybe we weren’t quite in the right lane for a second or ten.”
83 min: Wirtz slips Füllkrug clear down the middle. Schmeichel star-jumps in the style of his dad, and deflects a shot wide left of goal. The flag pops up for offside, so it’s all moot.
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81 min: … while Germany replace Raum and Musiala with Florian Wirtz and Benjamin Henrichs.
80 min: Denmark make a triple change: Christensen, Eriksen and Hojlund make way for Mikkel Damsgaard, Jonas Wind and Jacob Bruun Larsen.
79 min: Kimmich attempts to beat Schmeichel from inside his own half. Full marks for effort, and knocking a few seconds off the clock, if nothing else.
77 min: Eriksen takes this one as well. Rudiger hacks it out. Take two from the left. Havertz clanks this one clear with purpose, and soon the ball’s back at Schmeichel’s feet. That was a decent enough period of pressure by Denmark; the only problem was, they didn’t force Neuer into any sort of action.
75 min: Poulsen makes good down the right and wins a corner. Eriksen swings it in but Raum half-clears. The ball’s sent back into the mixer from the same flank and skims off Füllkrug’s head. Another corner for Denmark coming up, this time from the other side.
73 min: Kimmich passes long down the right for Havertz, who can’t quite fashion the space to cross for Füllkrug and is forced to turn tail. But Germany are buzzing around now, in pursuit of the third goal that would kill this game off totally. Meanwhile Joachim Andersen’s evening goes for bad to worse as he goes into the book. It’s not clear what for; it’s likely he doesn’t care any more.
71 min: A long punt down the middle nearly undoes Denmark. Füllkrug extends a leg in the hope of poking a dropping ball past Schmeichel, but can’t quite make contact. Schmeichel gathers.
70 min: Denmark make a double change, swapping out Delaney and Skov Olsen for Christian Nørgaard and Yussuf Poulsen.
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GOAL! Germany 2-0 Denmark (Musiala 68)
A long pass by Schlotterback down the left. Musiala chases after the ball. Schmeichel thinks about coming out of his box to clear, but decides against it. Bad move. He enters the box. He’s got Füllkrug in the middle, and a square pass would give the sub a tap-in. But instead he opens his body and steers a shot into the bottom-right corner. What a finish!
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67 min: Højbjerg slips Højlund into the box down the left. Højlund is one on one with Neuer … but slams the ball straight at the keeper. The rebound falls to Kimmich, who gently cushions a header back to Neuer. What ice-cool tidying up! Denmark have had their chances all right.
65 min: A double change for Germany, as Füllkrug and Can come on for Gündoğan and Andrich.
64 min: Havertz tears off down the right . He’s in acres. He reaches the byline and cuts back for Sane, who drags a shot wide left of an unguarded goal. The flag pops up for offside, saving some blushes, though VAR may well have had to get the rulers out had Sane scored. If Havertz did mistime his run, it wasn’t by much.
62 min: Some admin: Julian Nagelsmann has been booked for the temper-fuelled behaviour of his staff, while that offside for the Denmark goal may have been down to Delaney … though Andersen was also definitely off during the first phase of play. Anyway, here we are.
61 min: Mæhle is booked for dragging back Sane, then complaining about being penalised. He’ll miss the quarter-final should Denmark progress.
59 min: A ball is played to Havertz down the inside-left channel. It’s behind him, but he somehow manages to drag it with him anyway, bursting between Andersen and Vestergaard and clear down the inside-left channel. Outrageous skill! He enters the box, draws Schmeichel and … dinks a poor effort over the keeper and well wide right. He should have scored, but the skill to carve out the chance was so good, it’s difficult to criticise him too much. What a touch!
57 min: Bah and Andrich clash heads. Both are booked, which seems kind of strange. Andrich has taken a sore whack as well … and in more insult-injury news, he’ll miss the quarters now should Germany make it through.
56 min: This suddenly seems like an awfully long time ago, doesn’t it?
55 min: What an outrageous turnaround in fortune! And to add insult to injury, replays show Andersen was only just offside up the other end. Had he cut his toenails during the break, he’d have probably been on … and that is almost literally true. It was that close. The thin lines between success and failure, right there.
GOAL! Germany 1-0 Denmark (Havertz 53 pen)
Havertz whistles the spot kick into the bottom-right corner! Unstoppable, even though Schmeichel went the right way! Bedlam in Dortmund!
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Penalty for Germany!
52 min: There wasn’t too much space between Raum and Andersen, but the defender’s hand was away from his body. Michael Oliver takes a look at the screen, and soon he’s drawing a TV in the air and pointing to the spot. What a minute poor Joachim Andersen has had!
51 min: The ball’s pumped up the other end, and now there’s a potential handball in the Denmark box! The ball flicking off Andersen’s hand as Raum crossed from the left.
NO GOAL! Germany 0-0 Denmark
Now it’s Denmark’s turn to suffer Michael Oliver-infused disappointment. You could argue that while Andersen was initially offside when the cross came in from the right, a new phase of play had begun. But this is the decision, which is greeted as though a goal has just been scored.
GOAL! Germany 0-1 Denmark (Andersen 48)
A free kick out on left, floated in by Eriksen. Vestergaard keeps it alive at the far stick. The ball’s hooked back into the middle. Andersen is offside, but then there’s a stramash, the ball pinballing around, Delaney making a nuisance of himself six yards out. Finally it drops to Andersen, who sweeps from six yards into the bottom left!
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47 min: Eriksen tries to ping Hojlund into space, but Rudiger intervenes. All a bit scrappy at the start of the half. “This is surely made for traditional no 9,” writes Tim Stappard. “Get Füllkrug on asap for me.”
Before the half can start, someone with a clipboard ushers Michael Oliver to the touchline. After a chat he calls over the captains İlkay Gündoğan and Kasper Schmeichel, pointing upwards. To the heavens? More incoming weather? Or something wrong with the roof? The floodlights? It’s not clear. But eventually it’s decided to get going again, and Denmark get the second half underway. No changes.
So much for an extended half-time break. Here come the teams!
Half-time polka party.
HALF TIME: Germany 0-0 Denmark
The whistle announces what will reportedly be an extended half-time break.
45 min: Musiala loses possession in midfield, and suddenly there’s a lot of space for Delaney down the inside-right channel. He draws Rudiger and slips a pass into the centre for Hojlund, who attempts to chip Neuer, only for the keeper to stick up a strong arm and block. Andrich blooters clear.
44 min: The referee’s not got everything right this evening, though. “On Danish TV the commentators and pundits have been very critical of the time it took to halt the game,” reports Lars Esbjerg. “In 2005 a Danish player was struck by lightning during a training match. He had a cardiac arrest but survived but lost a leg. His coach at the time: Kasper Hjulmand.”
42 min: Schlotterbeck over-elaborates in his attempts to stride out from the back, and gifts the ball to Højlund, who slices into the side netting from the right-hand corner of the six-yard box. A more confident striker would have hit the target at the very least. A decent half-chance.
41 min: Denmark boss Kasper Hjulmand is booked for telling it as he sees it.
39 min: Speaking of headed goals, that disallowed one earlier on. On ITV, co-commentator Ally McCoist has just said after the restart: “The first thing I’ve got to do is apologise to Michael Oliver, because it was a block and it was a free kick, and I get carried away and I wanted a goal given, but he got it right.” And replays do indeed suggest that’s the case, so I should offer the ref my apologies too. In mitigation: this is what a season of PGMOL does to a man. It scrambles the brain and curdles the soul …
37 min: A cross comes in from the Germany left by Raum. Havertz smacks a header straight at Schmeichel, the save happening to him more than his making it. Anywhere else and that was a goal. Then the ball’s floated in from the right, and Schlotterbeck heads into the side netting. Denmark can’t cope with crosses into their box at all. A headed goal looks just a matter of time.
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The game restarts
35 min: The clock resets, and it’s an uncontested drop ball in the middle of the park. Germany get the game underway again.
Yep, the weather has eased off, and the players are back out. A five-minute warm up, and we’ll be underway again. Great news.
Michael Oliver is flitting up and down the tunnel. Hopefully we’ll have some action soon!
Mid-storm postbag. “This reminds me of 2006 coming back from Brazil vs Japan in Dortmund. My wife and I were driving back to our base in Thuringia when the storm arrived. We couldn’t continue the journey and took cover in a hostelry where we were looked after very well indeed. I’ve never seen forked lightning like it” – Tony Mason
“I was at the Azteca stadium for Mexico-Jamaica in 2023. The players were off for 20 mins or so. All the fans in the cheap seats higher up stayed dry. All the fans in the expensive seats lower down got very wet” – Beth Davies
“If Denmark were to beat Germany this evening, would it be a case of lightning striking twice?” – Gary Byrne
“The stormy weather is a warning to England that they had better hurry Kane back to full fitness” – Peter Oh
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It continues to absolutely hammer down in Dortmund. Fans in the lower seats making their way to the back of the stand in search of cover. Others sitting it out in polythene macs or under flags and banners. Water sluicing down from the roof. We could be at Old Trafford. A vague Glastonbury-in-the-summer-rain carnival feel as well.
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“I’m surprised it took them that long to get them off,” says ITV pundit Ange Postecoglou. The former Yokohama F Marinos manager speaks of his experience with similar storms in Asia. “They’re really sensitive around it … there’s been some pretty nasty incidents with it.”
Match suspended
The match has been suspended “due to adverse weather conditions.” The players are sent back to the dressing rooms. The thunder continues to crash, the lightning continues to dance, and the rain continues to come down in buckets. A tempest. Hopefully we’ll be getting some more football tonight, but with the pitch taking a proper soaking, nothing’s certain yet.
The players haven’t gone back down the tunnel. They’re all congregated around the dugouts. According to ITV referee expert Christina Unkel, “one of the biggest things to determine is how far it is, a general rule of thumb is ten miles is typically a 30-minute delay … but here at the Euros that decision is made internally between the referee and an appointed individual.”
36 min: … so with large forks of lightning flashing directly above the Westfalenstadion, referee Michael Oliver stops the game and takes the players off.
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34 min: A little bit of space for Havertz on the edge of the Danish D. It quickly closes down. Then a huge clap of thunder. This is Wagnerian.
32 min: The rain is now coming down in stair rods. More lightning. Meanwhile Musiala tries to release Gündoğan down the inside-left channel but Andersen reads the danger and intercepts well.
31 min: Eriksen, like Kroos before him, slaps an uncharacteristically witless free kick straight into the wall.
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30 min: Bah in some space down the right. He crosses low and hard. Mæhle picks up possession on the left and strides across the face of the box. Andrich blocks him in the agricultural style inside the D. Now that’s a block. It’s not a booking, which it probably should be. It’s a real chance for Eriksen, though.
28 min: An ominous rumble from the heavens. A couple of flashes of lightning. A strong possibility of some meteorological misadventures tonight.
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26 min: A break in play as Christensen and Havertz bang heads. Time for Julian Nagelsmann to get busy on the sideline and issue Jamal Musiala with some beneficial tactical advice. Thankfully both players recover and we go again.
24 min: Eriksen busies himself down the inside-left channel. The ball ricochets through to Mæhle, who spins in the box before larruping a wild effort miles over the bar. He should have done better. Denmark getting right into this game now, after their slow start.
23 min: Denmark enjoy some sterile possession. They’ve successfully managed to take a little of the wind out of the German sail. Speaking of which … “Having successfully peed Jurgen Klopp right off, Michael Oliver must have got bored alienating Germans one at a time and decided to do the whole lot in one go,” suggests Matt Hockey. “Very efficient, in fairness.”
21 min: A long Danish hoof down the middle. Eriksen takes it down adroitly, nearly wrong-footing Rudiger, who nonetheless still manages to block the eventual shot out for a corner. Nothing comes from the set piece, but this is better from Denmark, and Eriksen in particular.
20 min: Højbjerg spins into a little space down the middle and shuttles the ball towards Eriksen to his left. Eriksen then slips Mæhle in along the wing, but instead of bombing forward, Mæhle knocks the ball straight back to Eriksen, who has no space and doesn’t want it. End of a promising move, but the first time Denmark have showed up in Germany’s half.
18 min: Rudiger elegantly shovels (if that doesn’t sound contradictory) a pass down the right to release Havertz into space. Vestergaard does a good job in coming across and forcing his opponent to turn tail. Germany are playing some nice stuff here.
16 min: Kroos slaps the free kick straight into the wall, Vestergaard bravely taking one flush in the coupon.
15 min: Eriksen swings a free kick from the left flank into the Germany box. But it’s dealt with by Havertz. Germany counter, and Sane’s run is brought to an unceremonious halt, 25 yards out, just a smidgen left of centre. Kroos’s eyes light up.
13 min: Musiala drags a shot wide left from distance. It’s all Germany. Anyway, that Kimmich block and the chalked-off goal. Michael Oliver has already jumped through hoops to disallow what appeared to be a good Netherlands goal against France, and now this. Christina Unkel, ITV’s referee analyst, doesn’t think the decision was a clear and obvious error, so VAR couldn’t intervene, but that’s hardly a ringing endorsement. You can make a case for penalising Kimmich, but the contact was soft, the decision generous.
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11 min: From the corner, Andrich powers a header straight at Schmeichel. Denmark aren’t dealing with these German corners at all.
10 min: Rudiger, quarterbacking in the centre circle, floats a long diagonal towards Havertz, bursting into the Danish box down the left. Havertz meets the dropping ball with a low volley across Schmeichel. It’s heading into the bottom right. Schmeichel manages to turn it around the post, but not particularly convincingly.
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8 min: Denmark deal with the second corner.
7 min: Schlotterbeck, also perhaps fuelled by righteous rage, leaps highest as the corner comes in, and aims a looping header towards the top right. It may be going wide, but Schmeichel can’t take any chances. He claws that one around the post too for another corner.
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6 min: Kimmich, perhaps fuelled by righteous rage, sends a rising, rasping drive towards the top-right corner from 25 yards. Schmeichel is forced to turn around the post for a corner on the right.
NO GOAL! Germany 0-0 Denmark
It’s been chalked off! Kimmich is adjudged to have blocked Skov Olsen, who was attempting to mark Schlotterbeck. That’s harsh. The referee Michael Oliver seems to be on a one-man mission to wipe out all goals at this tournament. No fun for you!
GOAL! Germany 1-0 Denmark (Schlotterbeck 4)
Kroos takes. Schlotterbeck, unchallenged, meets it six yards out, and powers a header home! Easy as that!
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3 min: It’s a fast start, with Germany on the front foot and Denmark holding their shape, pressing hard. A right-to-left crossfield ball is misjudged by Bah, allowing Raum to stride into the box. Bah recovers and blocks the resulting cross for a corner. From which …
1 min: A very early run for Sane down the right. He digs out a cross but can’t find anyone in white. “I don’t see how Denmark can fail to progress from this match,” announces Jacob Hammer. “No team enjoys the role as underdogs more than we do and now we might play Germany, Spain, and France on our way to the final. Clearly this is how Kasper Hjulmand planned it. My only worry is that we might face Slovakia in the final (sorry England), be favourites, and get thrashed.”
Germany get the ball rolling. It’s hot and humid in Dortmund, and there’s a hurricane warning for later. Hopefully this will be done and dusted before the wind picks up. “I’m in Frankfurt, where I was hoping to see Scotland play on Monday night,” begins Simon McMahon. “That ain’t happening, so I’m supporting Germany tonight, though the fan zone here is closed due to bad weather, so it’s almost like home. A local hostelry then, maybe a beer or two, some mince and tatties. Come on Scotland Germany!”
The teams are out! It’s the Westfalenstadion, so of course there’s a hell of an atmosphere. The Yellow Wall is more white and black today, though. A sea of red at the other end. Both teams reflecting all of that by wearing their first-choice colours. Coins are about to be tossed, pennants swapped, fists bumped, and anthems sung, paeans to unity and justice and freedom, and a lovely country with broad beech trees. “Danish Dynamite! I read it!” exclaims Joe Pearson. “It’s great! Do Rob, Lars and Mike a solid and buy a copy!” Joe speaks for me. We’ll be off in a few minutes!
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Correspondence from Copenhagen. “My Danish compatriots are at full hubris throttle in Dortmund chanting ‘Deutschland, Deutschland, alles ist vorbei’ [‘Germany, Germany, it’s all over’] to the tune of Yellow Submarine,” begins Lars Bøgegaard. “That’s a throwback to the triumph at Euro 92, where the players led the choir from the balcony of the town hall in Copenhagen upon returning from Sweden with the trophy. Perhaps it’s not such a good idea reminding the German players of that seismic loss: better surprise them once more!”
Pennant Watch™. Welcome to the latest edition of the occasional feature that only runs when your MBM hack has run out of things to say and is reduced to desperate vamping. That’s happened even earlier than usual today, but we’ve got time to kill, so let’s plough on. I’ve not been able to find a good photo of the pennant İlkay Gündoğan will be handing over today, so here’s the one he gave to Andrew Robertson before the opening game, which Scotland’s proud, proactive and pulsating team memorably won 6-0 [subs please check]. It’s lovely, isn’t it? Even this pitiful shot, framing it as though it was the last unwanted item on the clearance rail at TK Maxx, can’t strip it of its grandeur. A gorgeous tricolour, lush gold tassels, and a logo that still screams modernity despite being designed in 1926. A beauty. Zehn!
Denmark’s effort, not so much. All a bit half-hearted. It scores ten as well, but only on our patented Will-This-Do-o-meter™. But it doesn’t matter. The DBU get a pass for all time for the mid-80s Danish Dynamite shirt. They’re in aesthetic credit for ever.
Here’s how both teams concluded the group stage. Are these games worth reliving? On the face of it, not really, no. But who’ll be telling the stories? Rob Smyth and John Brewin, that’s who! So click through and let them take you on a journey of retro wonder, all the way back to earlier this week, when we were all younger and a whole world of possibility stretched out ahead of us.
Pre-match scene-setting. Courtesy of our man in Berlin, Jonathan Liew.
Germany make three changes to their starting XI from the 1-1 draw with quarter-finalists Switzerland. David Raum and Nico Schlotterbeck come in at the back for Maximilian Mittelstädt and the suspended Jonathan Tah, while Leroy Sané replaces Florian Wirtz in attack. Schlotterbeck lines up in the centre of defence alongside Antonio Rüdiger, who had been a fitness doubt. Niclas Füllkrug, with two goals in three games from the bench, must once again make do with the role of supersub.
Denmark make two changes to their XI after the goalless draw with Serbia. Andreas Skov Olsen and Thomas Delaney come in for Jonas Wind and the suspended Morten Hjulmand. Christian Eriksen has recovered from illness to keep his place in midfield. Rasmus Højlund also holds onto his shirt, despite not yet finding the net at Euro 2024.
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The teams
Germany: Neuer, Kimmich, Rudiger, Schlotterbeck, Raum, Andrich, Kroos, Sane, Gundogan, Musiala, Havertz.
Subs: Gross, Fullkrug, Fuhrich, Baumann, Muller, Beier, Anton, Wirtz, Mittelstadt, Henrichs, ter Stegen, Koch, Can, Undav.
Denmark: Schmeichel, Andersen, Vestergaard, Christensen, Bah, Delaney, Hojbjerg, Maehle, Eriksen, Skov Olsen, Hojlund.
Subs: Kjaer, Jensen, Dolberg, Jorgensen, Damsgaard, Norgaard, Hermansen, Kristiansen, Wind, Poulsen, Ronnow, Dreyer, Kristensen, Bruun Larsen.
Referee: Michael Oliver (England).
Achtelfinale! 🔥 UND LOSSS!!! 🔥#dfbteam #euro2024 #gerden
— DFB-Team (@DFB_Team) June 29, 2024
📸 DFB/Thomas Böcker pic.twitter.com/SiOzwZXy6K
Startopstillingen mod Tyskland 🇩🇰
— Fodboldlandsholdene 🇩🇰 (@dbulandshold) June 29, 2024
Kasper Hjulmand har valgt de 11 spillere, der starter inde, når 1/8-finalen mod Tyskland fløjtes i Dortmund 💪
Er I klar til kamp? 🙌
KOM SÅ DANMARK 🇩🇰
📸 @fbbillederdk
#Herrelandsholdet #ForDanmark #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/CFRFhfdtey
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Preamble
Germany go into this round-of-16 tie as hot favourites. They’re on home soil, they’ve been impressive in sweeping aside Scotland and Hungary, and they maintained their unbeaten 2024 record by equalising late against Switzerland. Julian Nagelsmann is finally getting a tune out of a team trending in the right direction just in time for their Euro 2024 party.
But! Achtung! While Germany have the better of the overall head-to-head against Denmark, with 15 wins in 28 meetings, it’s much more even in competitive fixtures, with two victories apiece. The most recent one is Germany’s, a 2-1 win the groups at Euro 2012, but the most important is Denmark’s, their famous victory in the Euro 92 final. And that game in 2012 is Denmark’s only defeat in their last six matches against Germany, a sequence during which they’ve won two and drawn three. So this is no foregone conclusion. Kick off is at 8pm BST. It’s on! Oh, and while we’re on the subject of Denmark …
