Denmark vs Northern Ireland Preview

Denmark will resume their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign this Friday when they welcome Northern Ireland to Parken Stadium in Copenhagen.

The hosts begin their double header of European Championship qualifiers in high spirits after boss Kasper Hjulmand penned a new deal which will keep him in charge of the national team until 2026.

After overseeing Denmark’s joint-strongest Euro performance with their semi-final appearance in the 2020 edition, the Danish boss deserves his contract extension. He also has the all-time greatest points per game average of any Danish national manager to oversee at least 20 games (W23, D3, L12).

However, Kasper Hjulmand and his charges will look to forget their poor World Cup performance in Qatar where they crashed out in the group stage. They will aim to bounce back from their most recent 3-2 defeat to Kazakhstan in their Euro qualifier game.

Home fans can expect a resurgent performance from them as Portugal are the only side to win against the Danes on home soil in European Championship qualifiers since 2007 (W12, D3, L1).

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland are also looking to bounce back from their 1-0 loss to Finland in their most recent qualifier game.

Michael O’Neill’s side began their ECQ campaign with a routine 2-0 win over perennial whipping boys San Marino. Still, their failure to get a point against Finland means that they need instant redemption to boost their Euro qualifier chances in a fairly easy group that also has Slovenia.

However, a return of just two wins across their last nine internationals doesn’t inspire much confidence in achieving that aim (W2, D2, L5), especially when the two sides they defeated in that run are ranked outside of UEFA’s top 100 nations.

The visitors have failed to score in just one of their last eleven away ECQ games so Denmark can expect a strong challenge from Northern Ireland.