Denmark are everybody’s second favourite team, a proud squad who overcame Christian Eriksen’s brush with death, combining spirit and skill to reach the last 16.
Everybody has been inspired by this remarkable story and the script seems to have already been written for them to have a tournament to remember, in tribute to their fallen comrade.
Wales’ job is to shatter their dreams and put an end to this potential fairy tale.
Sounds harsh, doesn’t it?
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It definitely doesn’t sound like a very Welsh thing to do. We’ve become accustomed to being the loveable underdogs in these tournaments, the cheery overachievers who entice neutrals.
Suddenly we’re the bad guys who want to spoil the party and that presents a different type of challenge.
There’s no point denying it, the whole of Europe will be rooting for Denmark tonight and that shouldn’t surprise us one bit.
We all watched in horror as their talismanic number 10 collapsed on the pitch in their opening match against Finland. As heroic medics rushed to save Eriksen’s life, his team-mates pulled together, huddling to block the glare of the cameras and provide their friend with a degree of privacy in his hour of need.
The likes of Simon Kjær and Kasper Schmeichel consoled Eriksen’s distraught partner, even as some of their own team-mates were struggling to hold back tears.
The whole thing was broadcast live across the globe, the grief and concern of an entire nation on full display.
It was a terrifying ordeal for all involved and even after the first pieces of good news started emerging from the hospital, the whole of Denmark remained in shock.
To cap off their nightmarish start to the tournament, a visibly shell-shocked Danish side went on to lose their opening game to unfancied Finland, capitalising on an uncharacteristic error from Schmeichel. Pierre-Emile Højbjerg had a chance to rescue a point but he fluffed his penalty, adding to the ordeal for the sizeable home crowd.
After their surprise loss, Denmark’s hopes of progressing in the competition were suddenly in jeopardy.
They tried to hit back against Belgium but even after taking an early lead, the Red Devils’ superior quality saw Denmark fall to a second straight defeat.
It seemed like fate was conspiring against them. Everything which could possibly go wrong had gone wrong and they entered the final group game knowing they had a mountain to climb.
The players rose to the challenge and produced one of the performances of the tournament as they destroyed an embarrassingly terrible Russian side 4-1.
Beautiful strikes from Mikkel Damsgaard and Andreas Christensen helped make it a night to remember at Parken Stadium. The celebrations were wild, fuelled by the despair from the previous matches.
Despite everything which had been thrown at them, they emerged with their spirit stronger than ever.
Having overcome so much, they will now feel like nothing can stand in their way.
They not only have the love and admiration of an entire nation on their side, they also have the support of every neutral fan in world football.
They are the good news story of Euro 2020 and everybody across the globe wants them to do succeed. Well, almost everybody.
It’s an awkward position for Wales to be in.
A normal game against Denmark would see Wales play the role of plucky underdogs. Now they’re the villain of the piece.
As Connor Roberts said in a mid-week interview: “I think 99% of the world are going to be supporting Denmark.”
There’s no doubt Wales would have preferred a last-16 tie against either Russia or Finland, rather than the rejuvenated Danes.
Back in 2018 Wales lost at home and away to the talented Scandinavians in the Nations League. Denmark were a cut above in both matches and fully deserved their victories.
Eriksen pulled the strings in both Aarhus and Cardiff so his absence may work slightly in Wales’ favour but the Danes have already shown that they’re no one man team.
This squad is arguably stronger than the one which did the double over Wales two years ago. Key players like Braithwaite, Højbjerg and Christensen have improved since then while regular and dependable figures like Schmeichel, Kjær, Delaney and Poulsen are still going strong. They also have exciting new stars coming through like Mæhle and Damsgaard.
When Wales got to the knock-out stages of Euro 2016 they faced opposition which they knew pretty well.
A second-string Welsh side had drawn against Northern Ireland during a pre-tournament friendly so they would have been pretty confident when facing them with a full squad in Paris. They then took on the Belgians, who had failed to beat Wales in any of their three previous encounters. Chris Coleman’s men had beaten Belgium the previous year so despite the gulf in quality on paper, they knew they had what it takes to reach the semi-final.
But Wales’ last victory over Denmark was in 2008 and none of the current Danish squad were involved that day, although Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey and Chris Gunter all started the match.
Recent encounters have been quite one-sided so Denmark definitely know how to beat Wales.
It’s a difficult situation for Wales to be in. As well as being underdogs, we are likely to be quite unpopular if we spring a surprise and eliminate Denmark.
But this isn’t a totally new experience for this team and they can draw on past experiences for encouragement.
Back in 2016 the vast majority of the crowd at Lille’s Stade Pierre Mauroy was supporting Belgium in the quarter-final against Wales and few people gave us much hope going into that match but we pulled off the greatest win in our history.
Just a week and a half ago Wales beat Turkey in a stadium where Welsh fans felt as outnumbered as a vegan in a KFC, outclassing their opponents in conditions far more suited to the Turks.
Wales have shown that they are capable of succeeding when everything seems to be stacked against them. And while we haven’t had to deal with the kind of trauma Denmark have faced, it’s not exactly been smooth sailing for Wales either.
It was only a month before the tournament that we found out who would be managing the side. We were drawn in the only group with four teams in the top 30 of the FIFA rankings, sent to play two games on the shores of the Caspian Sea and one in the baking heat of Rome.
There has been no home advantage and Covid-19 restrictions have reduced the mighty Red Wall to just a handful of red bricks by now.
Today’s game will be extremely difficult for several reasons. It’s the knock-out stage of a major competition and we’re facing a seriously talented and beautifully balanced side who just happen to be more motivated than ever before, with the support of an entire planet cheering them on.
But Wales are used to being unfancied and we’re used to overcoming tough obstacles.
Playing the bad guys is a new challenge for us, but who’s to say we can’t embrace the new role and spoil Denmark’s potential fairy tale?
