Brazil has 167 million people and a land mass of 3.3 million square miles covering nearly half of South America. Denmark has 5.2 million people and a land mass of 16,000 square miles covering a peninsula tucked between Germany and Sweden.
Brazil has played in all 16 soccer World Cups and won four, including the last. Denmark has played in two World Cups, losing to Spain 5-1 in the 1986 second round.
There is no way to look at those numbers without thinking they add up to a colossal mismatch when Brazil plays Denmark in a World Cup quarterfinal match Friday night in Nantes.
Brazil is the once and future king of soccer. Denmark is the oldest kingdom in Europe.
“Norway was able to beat Brazil (in the first round), so why not us? Danish midfielder Per Frandsen said, hoping for Scandinavian symbiosis.
Although Denmark is not the least populous of the eight quarterfinalists–World Cup debutant Croatia, with 4.9 million people, meets Germany Sunday in Lyon–it may be the biggest underdog ever in a match at this stage of the tournament.
“For such a small country to play against the best team in the world is such a great achievement,” Danish goalie Peter Schmeichel said. “It is the best thing that could have happened to us. If we lose, OK, people expect that, but if we win, it will be the sensation of the century.”
The Danes have managed the sensational before, even if it didn’t have the same historical proportions.
In their 1986 World Cup debut, Denmark blitzed through the first round with victories over Scotland (1-0), Uruguay (6-1) and Germany (2-0) before being routed by Spain.
In 1992 Denmark was a last-minute replacement at the European Championship for Yugoslavia, banned under UN sanctions for its military aggression in Bosnia. The Danes, some of whom were vacationing on the beach when they were called to play, beat Germany 2-0 in a final marked by Schmeichel’s spectacular goaltending.
The biggest surprise of that victory was its coming without midfield playmaker Michael Laudrup, 34, the best player in Danish history, who is retiring from professional soccer after the World Cup.
Laudrup, a starter on the World Cup team in 1986, refused to play for Denmark from 1990 through 1993 because of a dispute with its previous coach, Richard Moeller Nielsen. That may have cost Denmark qualification for the 1994 World Cup.
His absence from Euro ’92 means a major title with the national team is the only missing item on a remarkable career record. It includes five league titles in Spain (four with FC Barcelona, one with Real Madrid), one in Italy (Juventus) and two in the Netherlands (Ajax).
Laudrup played his first professional match in 1981 alongside his father, Finn, who was playing his last. When they took the field for Brondby, the Danish league powerhouse, the father was 38, the son 17.
Finn Laudrup, a member of mediocre Danish national teams in the 1960s, left an imposing soccer legacy to his country in the form of his two sons, Michael and Brian, 29, a starting striker on the national team. They are the most renowned brother combination in modern soccer, having produced 57 goals for the national team, including one apiece in this World Cup.
In 1989, at the tournament marking its soccer centennial, Michael Laudrup scored twice as Denmark beat Brazil 4-0. He also scored once in the 1986 World Cup.
The Laudrups have played relatively few matches together for Denmark and have taken different paths in their club careers. Since 1989 Brian has played with Bayer Uerdigen and Bayern Munich in Germany, Fiorentina and Milan AC in Italy and Glasgow Rangers in Scotland. His record includes one Italian and three Scottish league titles.
“You play perhaps one (World Cup) quarterfinal in your career, especially if you’re from Denmark, and to play Brazil is a dream come true,” said Brian Laudrup, who is moving to Chelsea of the English Premiership next season.
“They are a fantastic team full of attacking players, but all the pressure is on them. They must attack us, but we know we will get chances to hit them on the break. It suits our style, and after the way we played against Nigeria, anything can happen. Having said that, I don’t think we have seen the best of Brazil yet.”
Both Brazil, which beat Chile, and Denmark were impressive 4-1 winners in the second round. The Danes, who had scored a total of four goals in their seven previous matches, came at Nigeria with the one-touch, free-flowing soccer that captivated the World Cup in 1986 and made them look positively Brazilian.
“It was incredible how we passed the ball around,” Michael Laudrup said.
Brazil’s Cesar Sampaio scoffed: “The Denmark team is less skillful than Chile.”
The Danes likely will be more conservative against Brazil, hoping for counterattacks like those that brought Norway a 2-1 victory in the first round. Brazilian star Ronaldo will be playing with a sore left knee.
No matter what happens, the match should reflect the ideal of what can happen when soccer fans from two countries get together. The Brazilians are a joyous, samba-dancing, drum-beating band. The Danes have earned the nickname, “Roligans,” as a contrast with hooligans, because “rol” means calm in Danish.
Monday night, when a crowd that reached 80,000 watched Denmark beat Nigeria on a giant screen in Copenhagen’s Town Hall Square, there were two police officers on duty. They were assigned to direct traffic.
