Thursday Sep 29 2005 09:11
Denmark forward Jon Dahl Tomasson has rejected claims that his side colluded with Sweden to produce a 2-2 draw and ensure that Italy crashed out of Euro 2004.
Tomasson twice fired the Danes ahead during the Estadio do Bessa clash, only for Mattias Jonson to level for the Swedes in the 89th minute following an error from Denmark's goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen.
Rather than celebrate the fact that the two Scandinavian sides had made it through to the last eight, the AC Milan star was angry that Denmark had let the opportunity to top the group and knock their local rivals out slip from their grasp.
He said: "There was a lot of talk about 2-2 but we all tried all of the time, all we wanted was three points to win the match.
"We are all really disappointed that we did not hold on at the end when we were 2-1 ahead, because that would have won the group for us.
"We did not play as we would have liked. Okay, so we are in the quarter-finals, but we did not show Danish football in the way we wanted.
"I play my football in Italy and of course I feel sorry for them. They have some great players who I admire and respect.
"The Swedish people will not like hearing me say this, but I believe the best two teams in the group were Denmark and Italy."
The result means that Denmark now face a quarter-final clash against the Czech Republic in Oporto on Sunday.
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