Denmark beat Australia in final friendly
Reuters - Saturday 02 June 2012, 17:09
Denmark beat Australia 2-0 to
finish their Euro 2012 preparations with a flourish in front of
their home fans in Copenhagen on Saturday.
After shaky displays in friendly defeats by Russia and
Brazil, coach Morten Olsen will be pleased with his goalkeeper
and defence for keeping a clean sheet while his centre-backs
even pitched in with the goals for good measure.
Liverpool's Daniel Agger opened the scoring, converting a
first-half penalty after being felled in the box while chasing
Christian Eriksen's sublime pass.
Andreas Bjelland, Agger's partner at centre back, scored
midway through the second half to put Denmark two up as the
Australian defence failed to deal with a corner.
Bjelland was one of three players from newly-crowned Danish
champions FC Nordsjaelland to take the field, along with Jores
Okore and Tobias Mikkelsen.
All came on as second-half substitutes.
The Australians did threaten on occasion, but Stephan
Andersen, first-choice goalkeeper since Thomas Sorensen suffered
a back injury against Brazil and withdrew from the squad, was up
to the task.
For Denmark, the result will restore some of the
self-confidence dented by recent friendly losses, even if the
level of opposition offered by Australia fell far short of what
the Danes can expect in Poland and Ukraine.
Denmark open their group B campaign against Netherlands in
Kharkiv on June 9, before facing Portugal and Germany in their
bid to reach the knockout stages.