Ireland v Denmark: A grudge match with a heavy load of baggage

Irish host a familiar enemy with a place at Euro 2020 up for grabs

Shane Duffy of the Republic of Ireland heads his side's equaliser during the Euro 2020 qualifier against Denmark in Copenhagen in June. Getty

Nobody would call it a classic of international football. But it seems to come around with clockwork certainty and it carries a heavy load of baggage. Most of those who have endured the last five Denmark versus Ireland matches, all in the space of just two years, acknowledge familiarity has turned the fixture into a proper grudge. Although, mostly, it’s less grudge than sheer drudge.

The Irish host the Danes on Monday in Dublin with a place at the Euro 2020 finals at stake, and the stronger safety nets are in the hands of the visitors, who need only a draw to secure their automatic qualification. Ireland must win, or reconcile themselves to an arduous possible path through the March play-offs. Denmark have lost only twice in their last 34 games.

The shaft of light for the Irish is that few opponents suffocate Denmark quite like Ireland can. Here’s the list of lowlights from this attritional rivalry: November 11, 2017, playing-off for a spot at the World Cup - 0-0. October 13 last year, in the Uefa Nations League - 0-0. And in the return Nations League game a month later? Yes, another goalless draw.

In June, for their first meeting in Group D of Euro 2020 qualifying, the drought was finally broken, although spectators in Copenhagen still had to wait until there was less than a quarter of an hour left for Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg to register the first goal in four-and-half hours of bump-and-grind between these two sides. Ireland’s Shane Duffy equalised quickly. His countrymen can look back on that Duffy goal as the one that kept the Irish in with a chance of snatching second place in the group going into this last round of fixtures, with Switzerland and Denmark currently ahead of them in the table.

These Danes are not easily kept in check, either. They have racked up a dazzling 22 goals in their seven matches in a group helpfully buttressed by Gibraltar. They make no secret of finding the stubborn, defiant Irish an irritant.

Denmark midfielder Thomas Delaney, the Dane with the most Celtic of surnames and a cute turn of phrase, described contests with Ireland “like trying to open a can of beans with your bare hands”. He also labelled Ireland’s football “primitive”. Peter Schmeichel, legendary Denmark goalkeeper and father of the current keeper, Kasper, used his punditry platform to decry an Irish team that are “just so bad”.

“They don’t regard us with - I don’t know - enough respect,” said Ireland head coach Mick McCarthy ahead of today’s showdown. McCarthy, who played in Ireland teams in the 1980s and 1990s that combined his sort of pluck and valiance with a higher ratio of classy creative players than the current squad contains will use the Danish derision as a tool. “I make a point of never dissing the opposition. And when you make those comments you have to win," said McCarthy. "They will not want to lose against us. That will p**s them off.”

McCarthy, in his second spell in the job, took over from Martin O’Neill last year, and he knows that, beneath all the pre-match chatter, and set apart from the saga of repeated stalemates, is the elephant in the room. It is this entry in the saga: November 14, 2017 - Ireland 1, Denmark 5.

That was the second leg of their World Cup play-off, and Ireland had gone into it in a positive frame of mind, their goalless draw in the away leg a platform. Buoyed by a vocal home support, Duffy put them in the lead after just six minutes.

With their fabled powers of resistance activated, they could glimpse their place in Russia. It was barely more than a hour away, when the dream fell apart. Via a Cyrus Christie own goal, Denmark equalised. After that, the finest artist in this long-running duel of attrition took command. Christian Eriksen, the most celebrated Danish player of his generation, scored a hat-trick. The Danes went to Russia and came home only when they lost on penalties to the eventual World Cup finalists, Croatia.

Eriksen is the Dane most dreaded by McCarthy and his players. Restless at Tottenham Hotspur, his club, ambitious to answer the keen interest of his many admirers among the superclubs of continental Europe, Eriksen has not had a happy Spurs season.

But he remains Denmark’s most powerful dynamite, with five goals from his last five qualifiers. When he looks at the recent record of Ireland-Denmark matches, he has every reason to think just one should be enough.