EUROSCENE/Paddy Agnew: "I don't know about England, really. I believe they can do better than in some recent tournaments but I don't think they're good enough to win the tournament. I don't know why, really, but I just don't believe in them. For me, my World Cup favourites are France, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, and just maybe Nigeria." That off-the-cuff assessment of this summer's World Cup finals comes from 30-year-old Danish defender Thomas Helveg.
His thoughts are worth consideration if only because of Denmark's remarkable record of the last decade. Cast your mind back to 10 years ago, when the world held its breath as conflagration flared in the former Yugoslavia. That political unrest led to the imposition of UN sanctions against the Yugoslav regime of now disgraced former President Slobodan Milosevic. Those sanctions, in turn, induced UEFA to ban Yugoslavia from the Sweden '92 European Championship.
The problem was that UEFA imposed their ban less than 10 days before the tournament was due to begin, thus leaving themselves with a problem about finding a replacement. Denmark, who had finished second in Yugoslavia's group, were asked if they would step into the breach. No problem, replied the Danish FA, just give us a day or two to round up the players from various exclusive beach resorts around the world.
The rest, of course, is history. Against all the odds, Denmark went on to win that tournament thus initiating a successful 10-year period which saw them qualify for England '96, France '98 and Euro 2000 as well as this summer's finals.
Not a bad record for a country of just over five million people. During a recent interview at AC Milan's Milanello training ground, we asked Helveg what the secret of Danish football was: "I don't know. We try to let younger players grow up in the right way, we take care of them and try and get them to enjoy football. It's important at the beginning of a kid's footballing life that you let them play the way they want to. After that, of course, when a boy is 12 or 13, then you start to be a bit more serious.
"As far as the Danish team is concerned, we try to stick together even off the pitch, we try to act like friends and not just team-mates when we're not playing and maybe that helps."
At first glance, the first-round draw would not appear to have been especially kind to Denmark who find themselves in a group with champions France, traditional south American power Uruguay and upcoming Africans Senegal. What was Helveg's initial reaction to the draw? "Oh My God", he responds with a big laugh. "Everybody says we're playing Uruguay for second place in the group but you never know. If you miss one game, you're in trouble so I wouldn't be so sure that Senegal are just there to finish fourth.
"And as for France, I saw an interview a couple of weeks ago with Zidane in which he said, Denmark watch out, we're even stronger than two years ago. We played them in a friendly last August and for the first half hour, frankly, we didn't even see the ball but then after that we got into the game."
Denmark reached these finals after an unbeaten run in a tough group featuring the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. The key to qualification was an away win against Bulgaria, as well as an away draw and home win against the Czechs. More important, says Helveg, is the overall quality of this side: "Even if we're much changed since 1998, I mean there's no Laudrup, no Schmeichel, we're still very strong. Martin Laursen here at Milan has impressed me a lot. Martin Jorgensen at Udinese is doing well too.
"Ebbe Sand, now with Schalke 04, is in great form, last year he was leading goalscorer in the Bundesliga. Then players like Dennis Rommedahl at Eindhoven, Thomas Gravesen at Everton and Stig Tofting at Hamburg are all very good players. Then, too, we have huge experience in defence with 38-year-old Jan Heinzte (PSV) and 32-year-old Rene Henriksen (Panathinaikos). This is an experienced side, it knows what it takes and I am sure we will again surprise people this summer."
