After a disappointing first half, Denmark gradually settled in their pass after the interval to achieve a 2-1 victory in a friendly against Northern Ireland on Saturday evening at the Parks Stadium, where Denmark held the visitors to their own half by the majority of the game.
Through history, Denmark has struggled against Noord -Ireland that otherwise classified 50 places under Denmark in the FIFA rankings.
Denmark was very lucky to include a 1-0 win against the visitors in June 2023 in a qualifying match for the Euro 2024, and the last time the two parties met, in November 2023, Northern Ireland won a comfortable 2-0 win against the Danes in Windsor Park.
Coach Brian Riemer had chosen very surprisingly to bench Kasper Schmeichel in favor of the Filip Jorgensen of Chelsea and the former other -kept coach also had an unexpected debut for FC Nordsjaelland's Lucas Hogsberg that replaced Jannik Vestergaar in the central defense.
In the first instance, that initially looked like a bad decision, when Hogsberg tried after six minutes to play a ball out of the box to be cut alone on the edge of the area by Justin Devenny.
Devenny then bubbled the ball over the goal where Shea Charles arrived on the rear post to go into the net to give the visitors a shock and to silence the crowd in the stage stage.
Denmark had chosen to play friendly matches against Noord -Ireland and Litania in the coming days, because the men of Brian Riemer will meet a relatively small football nation in their qualifying land campaign in their World Cup in the fall.
Denmark has previously had difficulty breaking down football minnows and that was certainly the case in the first half against Noord -Ireland, where Denmark was by far dominated the positions, but played too slowly to ensure the visitors who seemed very comfortable in their defensive approach to the game.
The Danish fans, however, finally got something to cheer in the rest of the rest when Brentford's Mikkel Damsgaard Gustav Isaksen found with his back to the goal on the edge of the box, the Lazio-wing player turned quickly and curled an unstoppable shot in the far corner.
The pattern of the second half started as the first half ended with Denmark in the attack, dictating the piece, dominating the ball and being the aggressors. Denmark were almost rewarded for their dominance after 58 minutes, when a header by Joachim Andersen, looking for his first goal ever for Denmark, was released from De Lijn.
Ten minutes later, Denmark then took a deserved lead, when Gustav Isaksen squared a low ball in the box that made two touches from Trai Hume and Daniel Ballard to leave Cristian Eriksen with an easy tap-in.
Towards the end, Denmark laid a virtual siege on the visitor's goal, but the side of Michael O'Neil prevented further damage despite great opportunities for the Danes.