Denmark 92 or Greece 04

ROFLUTION

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Seems to be a thing of the mid 80s. I think most people would be surprised that in Brazil, despite having 5 World Cup winning squads, many people consider the 86 squad the best Brazilian team of all time.
Well Denmark's high regard of the 80's team is not down to nostalgia. It was simply because there was more entertainment in the way Denmark played. They got a lot of followers from other countries, like Netherlands had gotten due to great skills and flair. And gained big results against back then a football super power Soviet Union (Denmark won 5-2 in a highly entertaining match where M. Laudrup entered the World satage) Anyone who followed Denmark in the 90s would know that after Ricard Møller Nielsen was appointed we would witness some very boring tactics.

Actually Alex Ferguson said Denmark was the best european team back then before the mexico World Cup. And Pelé also spoke highly of them.
 
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Le Red

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Well Denmark's high regard of the 80's team is not down to nostalgia. It was simply because there was more entertainment in the way Denmark played. They got a lot of followers from other countries, like Netherlands had gotten due to great skills and flair. And gained big results against back then a football super power Soviet Union (Denmark won 5-2 in a highly entertaining match where M. Laudrup entered the World satage) Anyone who followed Denmark in the 90s would know that after Ricard Møller Nielsen was appointed we would witness some very boring tactics.
Sure, I wasn't meaning it was down to nostalgia. From what I hear, a lot of national teams really made a mark in that time for talented and entertaining football.
 

led_scholes

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Ironic thing is Portugal pretty much adopted the template for their euro 2016 win but little is said because they had well known players in all areas.

Their defence was a total brickwall in the games v Croatia, Wales and France and of course with Ronaldo upfront he could also score from a cross like Charisteas did a few times in 2004.

Greece very nearly went out in the group stages, did the hard work of getting 4 points off Spain-Portugal but then messed up their last game and lost 3-1 to already out Russia. If Spain and Portugal had just played out a draw Greece would've been out.
Portugal couldn't draw the game vs Spain, as it would mean elimination. They had 3 points till then (vs Russia) and a draw would bring them in the same points with Greece.
 

FootballHQ

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Portugal couldn't draw the game vs Spain, as it would mean elimination. They had 3 points till then (vs Russia) and a draw would bring them in the same points with Greece.
Ah was it head to head? Thought it was GD as Portugal had + 1 compared to Greece -1.
 

led_scholes

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Ah was it head to head? Thought it was GD as Portugal had + 1 compared to Greece -1.
Yeap, first was head to head (so Greece goes through), then the GD, then who score the most goals and then 3 or 4 other different rules to determine who qualifies. Funny as it sounds, Greece went through because she scored more goals than Spain -the head to head was 1-1, and the GD was 0 for both. The only way Greece could be eliminated was, if she had lost with >1.5 goals from Russia.
 

Gehrman

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Since I'm Danish, I will go with Denmark. We didn't even qualify and lacked Michael Laudrup who is our best ever player and one the best playmakers of all time. Beat all the big teams on the way.
 

Offside

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Greece 04 is arguably a bigger achievement. Competition of 16 teams compared to 8.
 

Gio

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Greece the bigger shock, Denmark the more impressive team. Mostly because they could both defend under the cosh and go toe-to-toe in a more open game, as they did against Holland for example.
 

RoyH1

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Greece was a bigger shock for me. Despite their luck in getting there, Denmark had a couple of world class players and had been an impressive team through the 80’s.
 

UnofficialDevil

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I'm not anti Scottish, I just wanted Moyes out.
Hi hated the way Greece won that tournament. The most repulsive football I have ever seen. Mass defending trying to score only from a free kick or a jammy corner or some form of counter attack always trying to steal a win. Other teams hitting cross bars and missing there best players through injury.
Which is also one of the reasons I don't like Ole as manager, seems to have the same aproach against teams considered better than us. makes us look small time.
 

SportingCP96

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Can we close this thread? Feck Greece and feck 04:lol::nono:

That tournament and that final were my first exposure and memories to football.
 

Dansk

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I'm Danish, and we won the European Championship back in 1992. That's when I really got into football. My dad had been a United fan since the late 60s, but I don't think I really resonated with that until the mid-90s. I was born in 1985, so I don't remember Fergie's early years.

I was seven years old in 1992. We were vacationing at a camping resort on Svinø (literally 'Swine Island,' quite a name) and had scheduled this holiday before anyone knew we would even play in the tournament. Denmark hadn't qualified, but due to the war in Yugoslavia, they were deemed ineligible and Denmark went in their place. It was an ugly war, too. A horrible period of time for them.

In any case, most of the Danish players were already on vacation. They had to be called back from wherever they were at the time. Michael Laudrup famously chose not to play in the tournament because he had fallen out with the head coach, Richard Møller Nielsen. In fairness Nielsen had very few credentials and was largely considered an interim coach, but one imagines that Michael Laudrup might have regretted it in hindsight. Meanwhile, his brother Brian took the headlines and was amazing throughout the whole tournament. He then went to Rangers but could have done better than that.

Anyway, we were out camping and I was seven years old. I could only barely understand how significant it was for Denmark to make it to the latter stages of the tournament. There was a common room at this camping resort, little more than a shack meant for maybe a dozen or fifteen people. It had a television, though--the only one available to anyone in the area.

As we progressed through the tournament, this common room in a shack, meant for a dozen or so people to sit and have breakfast, was transformed into something else entirely. People were sitting on tables, in windowsills, standing all along the walls, sitting on the floor, watching as we advanced through the tournament. It must have been three hundred degrees in there by the end of each game. There was condensation on the windows.

And then we won it. Germany, the best team in Europe at the time, were beaten--not just by one goal, but two! The first was by John "Faxe" Jensen (Faxe is a Danish beer brand, and he has always been called John Faxe here in Denmark) who was notorious for never scoring, but on that day, he did. The second goal, upon review, looks quite a lot like there was a bit of handball involved, but this was long before VAR, so why not. The goalscoarer, Kim Vilfort, had gone back home in the middle of the knockout stages because his daughter had cancer and he had to see her in the hospital. He then returned to play at her urging, but she succumbed to the disease shortly after the tournament, at the age of six. :(

Peter Schmeichel kept us in it the whole time. That man was big enough to fill up the entire goal. You can't score if the goalie is so big that it's physically impossible for the ball to get past him, and he literally was, figuratively speaking. What a goalkeeper. I have his autograph on a 1990 World Cup football card that I made him sign when they came back home and I managed to stop him during the parade. He looked three meters tall at the time. We traded those cards at school. I had to trade Roberto Baggio and Dennis Bergkamp for Schmeichel's card. When I tottered up to him and asked him to sign it, Peter said, "oh, you've got one of those as well? Heheh. Alright, here you go." In Danish, of course. Man was enormous.
 
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top1whoisman

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The ´92 tournament was great, although I was just 10 at the time. But I loved it, the Danish team was full of either brilliant players or hard-working team players. The ´04 was one of the worst tournaments I can remember. Was it Latvia who were another ultra-defensive team that basically played for 0-0 in every match?
 

LDUred

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I think Greece's was way more impressive. For a start, they won more games. I think Denmark only technically won 2 games (the third win being on penalties).

Denmark didn't have to play a quarter final, but Greece put aside France, Czech Republic, and Portugal (again) without conceding a single goal.

Czech Republic in 2004 were actually really good. They had a midfield of Galasek, Poborsky, Nedved, and Rosicky and obviously Cech in goal and Baros up front. People did genuinely fancy them to win it.

It wasn't at all pretty but they were organized and determined. To win three knockout games against more fancied opposition without conceding a single goal takes more than just a bit of luck.
 

Mb194dc

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Greece 04 a bigger achievement or luck. A bit like Wimbledon's 88 fa cup win.

Denmark had two world class players in 92 and a third in M Laudrup who didn't even play.

Different class go the Greece 2004 team.
 

Dansk

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I think the best game of that tournament was Denmark - Holland. Yes, it was decided by penalties, and I'm not normally fond of that, but what a game. Confusingly, Denmark had Henrik Larsen (who scored in that game) and Sweden had Henrik Larsson of Celtic fame. Those Swedes need to give Scania back to its rightful owner, if you ask me. Norway, too. I hear there's oil there. Giv Skåne tilbage! Incidentally, no two European countries have been at war more times than Denmark and Sweden. We've since settled our differences, to some extent. For now, anyway. We'll see.
 
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Red the Bear

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Legendary achievements either way but I do get the feeling that green's was more impressive, they just put on a defensive masterclass and it's hard to not admire them for that, they were inch perfect and the quality of opposition was better to.

Denmark were well deserving champions in 1992 but what a shame we didn't get to see that great generation of Balkan players on the internal stage one more time, I reckon they would have gone far too.
 

Gehrman

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Well im half Danish so i will go with Denmark. No bias obviously
 

Meep

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Well Greece was just epo-fuelled so I go with beer-fuelled Denmark.
 

Andrade

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Two of the biggest shock champions at an International tournament. When it comes to Greece, its usually seen as one of the greatest shocks and rightly so, but what about Denmark? They didn't even qualify for the 1992 tournament but entered the tournament due to Yugoslavia breaking up. Michael Laudrup didn't even go to the Euro's as he reportedly didn't want to end his holidays. So without arguably their best player, they went on to win a tournament they weren't good enough to qualify for. They beat Germany 2-0 in the final, a German team that had Klinsmann, Sammer, Brehme and Effenberg and had beaten the holders, Netherlands on penalties in the semi finals.

Greece winning the tournament, beating the hosts Portugal twice, including the final and beating the holders in France is highly impressive. Beating a great Czech team along the way with if memory serves me right was with a silver goal.

Which of the two was the greater shock and which team was more impressive?

Denmark beat France, Netherlands and Germany to win it.
Greece beat Portugal x2 Czech Republic and France.
Greece
 

KeanoMagicHat

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The ´92 tournament was great, although I was just 10 at the time. But I loved it, the Danish team was full of either brilliant players or hard-working team players. The ´04 was one of the worst tournaments I can remember. Was it Latvia who were another ultra-defensive team that basically played for 0-0 in every match?
2004 was probably the nadir of football since I started watching it, Mourinho in vogue shithousing with Porto then Chelsea. Benitez getting big with Valencia and taking the Liverpool job. Terrible Porto-Monaco final. Then Greece winning the Euros.

As Valdano said "shit on a stick" football. Didn't get better again until the late 00s.