Verdammt! Germans snuff out Danish Euro dreams

Heavy 0-3 defeat means the Danes will only be playing for pride on Saturday

There will be no Euro 92 miracle for the Danish under-21 Euro 2017 squad – no unexpected glory this time around.

Denmark followed up on its 0-2 defeat by Italy on Sunday with a 0-3 loss at the hands of Germany in Krakow.

“We just have to admit that we haven’t been good enough,” coach Niels Frederiksen told Bold.dk.

“Not that it’s been a fiasco or a disaster, because that can’t be the definition when you are the underdog, but it doesn’t mean we are very disappointed. We are, because we had hoped and believed in more.”

READ MORE: Italy too strong for under-21 Danes

Playing for pride
The Danes did actually play a strong first half, during which they didn’t concede and could have snatched the lead with a bit more luck. But a couple of dangerous breakaway opportunities were either dealt with by the German keeper or simply squandered.

And as against Italy, it took a marvelous effort to get the Germans going, with Davie Selke producing an outstanding finish that curled into the top corner after 53 minutes.

Like in their previous game, the Danes were forced to go forward and the German capitalised with two more goals on 73 and 79 minutes.

The loss, coupled with the Czech Republic’s surprising 3-1 defeat of Italy in the other Group C match-up, means Denmark are rock bottom of the group with zero points and a goal difference of 0-5.

In other words, there’s nothing to play for in the final game against the Czechs on Saturday, except for a bit of pride.