The 15,000 Danish supporters crammed into the Bollaert Stadium in Lens last evening were making no attempt to disguise their sense of relief after Marc Rieper's goal had hauled their team back from the brink.

With the scoreline still blank after 67 minutes and panic spreading through the men in red shirts, the Celtic player, earlier booked, headed the goal which restored the team's respectability.

At no stage of the game was there any real danger that they would lose it. But as error superseded error, there was an unmistakable threat of their losing a point. And against the weakest team in the group, that could have been very expensive in the context of qualification for the second round.

"We achieved what we came here to do and won the game," said their coach Bo Johansson afterwards. "But if you ask me if I was happy with much of that I saw I've got to admit that it wasn't an easy one to watch.

"We should have made certain of winning inside the first 20 minutes. And the longer we waited for a goal the more I worried that it was going to be another bad day for us."

Saudi Arabia, with little to offer except spirit and a naivety which curiously worked to their advantage on occasions, might well have been routed. Incredibly, however, they were still trading at parity at a stage of the game when performance, pedigree and almost everything else which goes to define winners suggested they would be licking their wounds.

Anybody who has ever espoused the cause of the underdog could only watch and admire the manner in which players like Khilaiwi Al Mohammed, Khamis Al Owairan and Jahani Al Mohammed closed ranks to deny the Danes in the opening 20 minutes when their goal was almost constantly under siege.

After Ebbe Sand had somehow contrived to hook the ball over from five yards after Michael Schjonberg left him in the clear in the 18th minute, things went from bad to worse for Denmark. Rieper, despairing of the efforts of those in front of him, joined the attack in the 37th minute only to have his point-blank shot saved by goalkeeper Daeya Al Mohammed. When Martin Jorgensen repeated the error early in the second half, Johansson undeniably cringed in the dug out.

All was forgiven if not forgotten, however, when Brian Laudrup was played onside by Gahani Al Mohammed and from the ensuing cross Rieper climbed above the defence to head the priceless goal.

That Brian Laudrup should have been involved in the buildup was appropriate for it was his delicate skills which gave the game its only merit in the opening half. By contrast, older brother Michael was vastly disappointing, leaving Thomas Helveg and Soren Colding, an impressive figure at full back, as the only players to approach Brian Laudrup in influence.

Peter Schmeichel, who spent much of his time patrolling the outer precincts of his penalty area, had only one shot of substance to save. And the Saudis were so delighted to have troubled him that two or three of their number were seen to be congratulating each other openly on the achievement.

With the expansion of the format of the championship to include 32 finalists, it is inevitable that there are still more mismatches to come. But few would say - on the evidence of last night's offering - it has done anything to enrich the competition.

Disturbingly, too, there were signs of some erratic refereeing by the Argentinian, Alberto Javier Castrilli, some of whose decisions against Denmark were little short of astounding.

If the game itself did little to enrich the folklore of the World Cup, the setting certainly did. By all known records, Lens is the smallest town ever to host a game in the finals of the competition.

The capacity crowd of 38,000 jammed into a compact modern stadium was just about the size of the entire population of Lens. And as the trains disgorged thousands of Danish supporters it bore all the characteristics of a town en fete for a fair day.

Bemused locals stood and watched the chaos in front of them as the Danes, ignoring the entreaties of the entire local police force, danced their way up the main street on their way to the ground.

In the event, however, there was nothing more to challenge law and order than the spectacle of the odd fan, face suitably painted in red and white, throwing a friendly arm around a policeman.

Would that it were the same when England and the notorious element of their support set down here in a fortnight's time.