With England, the Czech Republic and sensational Iceland all celebrating qualification to Euro 2016 in France over the weekend, Denmark’s qualification hopes became even more precarious following their disappointing goalless draw against Albania on Friday night.
The result at Parken Stadium against Albania means the Danes must beat Armenia in Yerevan tonight and Portugal in Braga next month to be assured of automatic qualification for France next summer. Anything less, and they will have to hang their hopes on favourable results in other games.
Denmark is second with 11 points, one point behind Portugal and level with Albania, but their rivals both have three games remaining to Denmark’s two.
“We had chances to beat Albania and we can’t be satisfied,” said Denmark’s head coach Morten Olsen. “We dropped two points and are under pressure now. We must have a plan and a strategy for overcoming Armenia. It’s about minimising the opponents’ chances.”
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New safety net
There is some good news for the Danes, however. Should they end up in third place, there is a chance they could still automatically qualify as the best third-placed team.
Failing that, they have yet another opportunity to qualify through the playoffs with the remaining third-placed teams, which at the moment includes Croatia, Ukraine, Hungary, Russia, Israel, Ireland, Turkey and Estonia.
Denmark’s crucial match against Armenia kicks off tonight at 18:00 and can be seen on Kanal 5.
