Euro 2024: Germany v Denmark, last 16 – live | Euro 2024

23 minutes: Denmark enjoy a sterile possession. They successfully managed to take some of the wind out of the German sail. Speaking of which… “After successfully pissing off Jurgen Klopp straight away, Michael Oliver must have got bored of picking off the Germans one by one and decided to do it all at once,” speculates Matt Hockey. “Very effective, to be honest.”

21 minutes: Long danish hoof in the middle. Eriksen brings it down skilfully, narrowly missing Rüdiger, who nevertheless manages to block the eventual corner kick. Nothing comes from the kit, but this is better than Denmarkand Eriksen in particular.

20 minutes: Højbjerg spun into a small space in the middle and moved the ball to Eriksen on the left. Eriksen then poked Mæhle on the wing, but instead of bombing forward, Mæhle knocked the ball straight back to Eriksen, who had no space and didn’t want it. End of a promising move, but for the first time Denmark appeared in half of Germany.

18 minutes: Rudiger elegantly scoops (if that doesn’t sound contradictory) a pass down the right to release Havertz into space. Vestergaard does a good job of coming across and forcing his opponent to turn tail. Germany they play nice stuff here.

16 minutes: Kroos drives the free-kick straight into the wall, Westergaard bravely takes a flush in the heel.

15 minutes: Eriksen curled a free kick from the left flank towards the goal Germany box. But that’s what Havertz deals with. Germany counter and Sane’s run is unceremoniously stopped 25 yards out, just a little to the left of centre. Kroos’ eyes light up.

13 minutes: Musiala drags a shot to the left from distance. Everything is Germany. Anyway, that Kimmich block and the drawn goal. Michael Oliver has already jumped through hoops to cancel out what looked like a good Netherlands goal against France, and now this. Christina Unkel, ITV’s refereeing analyst, didn’t think the decision was a clear and obvious error so VAR couldn’t intervene, but that’s hardly a ringing endorsement. You could make an argument for a Kimmich penalty, but the contact was soft, the decision generous.

11 minutes: Andric heads straight at Schmeichel from a corner. Denmark they don’t deal with these German corners at all.

10 minutes: Rudiger, a quarterback in the center circle, floats a long diagonal toward Havertz, breaking into the Danish left field. Havertz meets the drop ball with a low volley past Schmeichel. Heads down right. Schmeichel manages to turn around the bar, but not very convincingly.

8 minutes: Denmark deal with the second corner.

7 minutes: Schlotterback, also perhaps fueled by righteous anger, leaps highest as the corner comes in and directs a spinning header into the top right corner. It could go wide, but Schmeichel can’t risk it. He also grabs the one around the post for another corner.

6 minutes: Kimmich, perhaps fueled by righteous anger, sends a rising, husky shot into the top right corner from 25 yards. Schmeichel is forced to turn around the post for a corner on the right.

It’s crossed out! Kimmich is believed to have blocked Skov Olsen, who was trying to tag Schlotterbeck. This is rude. Referee Michael Oliver appears to be on a one-man mission to erase all goals in this tournament. No fun for you!

Kroos takes it. Schlotterback, unchallenged, meets him six yards out and heads home! Easy!

3 minutes: It’s a fast start, with Germany on the front foot and Denmark maintaining form, pushing hard. A cross from right to left is misjudged by Bach, allowing Raum into the box. Bach recovered and blocked the resulting cross for a corner. From which …

1 minute: A a lot early run for Sane down the right. He digs up a cross but finds no one in white. “I don’t see how Denmark may not be able to move on from this match,” announced Jacob Hammer. “No team enjoys being the underdogs more than us and now we could be playing Germany, Spain and France on our way to the final. Apparently, this is the way Kasper Hülmand planned it. My only worry is that we could face Slovakia in the final (sorry England), be favorites and get beaten.”

Germany got the ball rolling. It’s hot and humid in Dortmund and there is a hurricane warning for later. Hopefully this will be done and dusted before the wind picks up. “I’m in Frankfurt where I was hoping to see the Scotland game on Monday night,” begins Simon McMahon. “It doesn’t happen, so I support it Germany tonight, although the fan zone here is closed due to inclement weather, so it’s almost like home. Local hostel then, maybe a beer or two, some mincemeat and pastries. Come on Scotland Germany!”

The teams are out! It’s the Westfalenstadion, so of course it has a hellish atmosphere. However, the yellow wall today is more white and black. A sea of ​​red at the other end. Both teams reflect all this by wearing their first choice colours. There is to be tossed coins, exchanged flags, bumped fists and sung hymns, shouts of unity, justice and freedom and a beautiful country of broad beech trees. “Danish dynamite! I’m reading it!” exclaims Joe Pearson. “It’s great! Do Rob, Lars and Mike a solid and buy a copy!“Joe speaks for me. We’re leaving in a few minutes!

Correspondence from Copenhagen. “My Danish compatriots are in full swing in Dortmund chanting ‘Deutschland, Deutschland, alles ist vorbei’ [‘Germany, Germany, it’s all over’] to the tune of Yellow Submarine,” begins Lars Boegegaard. “It’s a throwback to the Euro 92 triumph where the players led a chorus from the balcony of Copenhagen City Hall on their return from Sweden with the trophy. Perhaps it is not such a good idea to remind the German players of this seismic loss: better surprise them once more!’

Pennant Watch™. Welcome to the latest edition of the random feature that only runs when your MBM hack has run out of things to say and is reduced to desperate vamping. This happened even earlier than usual today, but we have time to kill, so let’s move on. I couldn’t find a good photo of the pennant Ilkay Gundogan will hand out today, so here’s the one he gave to Andrew Robertson before the first game, which a proud, proactive and pulsating Scotland team memorably won 6-0 [subs please check]. It’s beautiful, is not it? Even this pathetic shot framing it like it’s the latest unwanted item on the TK Maxx rail can’t rob it of its greatness. A beautiful tricolor, luscious gold tassels and a logo that still screams modern despite being designed in 1926. Beauty. Zen!

Denmark’s efforts, not so much. It’s all a bit half-baked. It also scores a ten, but only on our patented Will-This-Do-o-meter™. But it does not matter. DBU gets an all-time pass for Denmark’s mid-80s Dynamite jersey. They are in aesthetic credit forever.

Here’s how the two teams finished the group stage. Are these games worth experiencing? At first glance, not really, no. But who will tell the stories? Rob Smith and John Bruin, that’s who! So click through and let them take you on a journey of retro wonder, all the way back to earlier this week, when we were all younger and a world of possibilities stretched out before us.

Setting the scene before the match. Courtesy of our man in Berlin, Jonathan Liu.

Germany make three changes to their starting line-up following their 1-1 draw with quarter-finalists Switzerland. David Raum and Nico Schlotterback come in at the back for Maximilian Mittelstedt and the suspended Jonathan Tach, while Leroy Sane replaces Florian Wirz in attack. Schlotterback lines up in the center of defense alongside Antonio Rudiger, who was a fitness doubt. Niklas Fühlkrug, with two goals in three games from the bench, must once again settle for a supersub role.

Denmark made two changes to their squad after the goalless draw with Serbia. Andreas Skov Olsen and Thomas Delaney come on for Jonas Wind and the suspended Morten Hülmand. Christian Eriksen recovered from illness to keep his place in midfield. Rasmus Højlund is also holding on to his shirt, although he has yet to find the back of the net Euro 2024.

Germany: Neuer, Kimmich, Rudiger, Schlotterbeck, Raum, Andrich, Kroos, Sane, Gundogan, Musiala, Havertz.
Subs: Gross, Fulkrug, Fürich, Baumann, Müller, Bayer, Anton, Wirtz, Mittelstadt, Henrichs, ter Stegen, Koch, Kahn, Undav.

Denmark: Schmeichel, Andersen, Westergaard, Christensen, Bach, Delaney, Hoiberg, Maele, Eriksen, Skov Olsen, Hoylund.
Subs: Kjaer, Jensen, Dolberg, Jorgensen, Damsgaard, Norgaard, Hermansen, Christiansen, Wind, Poulsen, Ronow, Dreyer, Christensen, Bruun Larsen.

Referee: Michael Oliver (England).

Germany enter this round of 16 as hot favourites. On home soil, they were impressive in sweeping Scotland and Hungary and maintained their unbeaten record since 2024 with a late equalizer against Switzerland. Julian Nagelsmann is finally getting a tune from a team that is moving in the right direction just in time for Euro 2024 party.

But! Achtung! While Germany has the better of the overall clash Denmark, with 15 wins in 28 matches, it is much more even in competitive matches, with two wins each. The most recent is that of Germany, with a 2-1 win in the groups at Euro 2012, but the most important is that of Denmark, their famous victory in the final of Euro 92. And that game in 2012 is Denmark’s only defeat in their last six games against Germany, a run during which they won two and drew three. So it’s not a foregone conclusion. Kick-off is at 20:00 BST. It’s on! Oh, and while we’re on the subject of Denmark…