History Of The European Championship: 1992

Denmark's remarkable success in winning Euro 92 was as unexpected as their actual participation in the tournament. The Danes only joined in the party as a result of the political instability in Yugoslavia, which had forced them to pull out. Denmark, having finished second in the qualifying group to the Yugoslavs, were the team chosen by UEFA to stand in.

Early on they failed to impress and were lucky to survive unimpressive performances against England (drawn 0-0) and Sweden (lost 1-0) before managing to string their game together for the last group match against France.

Larsen's early goal was cancelled out by the mercurial Jean-Pierre Papin - outstanding throughout France's limited involvement - before Lars Elstrup stretched out a leg to reach a Kim Vilfort cross to put the Danes 2-1 up.

Then, despite suffering numerous injuries, they took the lead twice in their semi-final with a complacent Holland.

Henrik Larsen, enjoying a good spell of form, scored twice in the first half only for his efforts to be cancelled out by first Dennis Bergkamp and then, five minutes from time, Frank Rijkaard.

Holland, one of the favourites to win, failed to take the game by the scruff of the neck and in the resultant penalty shoot- out, Dutch striker Marco van Basten - the shining star of 1988 - had his penalty saved by Peter Schmeichel.

Against Germany, Denmark showed skill, cunning and determination in abundance. The Danish win in the Final was well merited and was built on frustrating the Germans into resorting to questionable strong-arm tactics.

Arsenal-bound John Jensen scored a rare goal after 18 minutes, as the Danes more than held their own in the first half.