Source: FOOTYMAD
Denmark Have Bigger Fish To Fry
The EURO2012 qualifying games are more important to the Danes than beating Scotland tonight Morten Olsen is using tonight's game against Scotland as preparation for their EURO2012 qualifying games. He is not that hung up on the need to worry about extending Denmark's good run against Scotland. The former Ajax boss captained the Danish side which beat the Scots 1-0 in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and in the four times the countries have meant since Scotland have yet to score a goal, far less take a share of the spoils. However, Olsen, who confirmed that young Ajax left-back Nicolai Boilesen will make his debut, is looking at the game in the context of playing Norway next month. Portugal are top of Group H on goal difference from Denmark and the Norwegians, all of whom have 10 points from five games. Olsen said: "It is important to win against Norway. Of course there is a lot of prestige in the national game, we will try to win again. But that is not the result we want, we want to beat Norway, Cyprus and Portugal because then we know what we will be doing next June. That is important and I think we have to win them all." Asked if he was surprised about Scotland's recent record against the Danes Olsen, who took over as Denmark coach in 2000, smiled as he replied: "It is difficult to beat Denmark. But we have to show that tomorrow too. We are a small football country in the same situation as Scotland. We have probably been the better in the last years, we have qualified for a lot of tournaments. But I have seen the Scottish squad, there are a lot of players in the Premier League or the Championship or playing for Celtic and Rangers, so they are in a good way." Denmark keeper Thomas Sorensen sees the benefit of having Olsen in change for so long. The two countries are of similar size and Scotland have not qualified for the finals of a major tournament since 1998 and our EURO2012 fate will probably be decided in next month's qualifying double-header at home against the Czech Republic and Lithuania. Sorensen said: "There have been a lot of different managers at Scotland and there have been brief moments of success but the continuity hasn't been there. Morten has been in charge for 11 years, he has stuck to his way of playing and most of the time it has paid off. When he took over he tried to get the youth development all the way down to under-15 level and make sure everyone learns the same way of playing. The overall competition among European countries in my time of playing has increased tremendously. When there used to be 10 good teams, now there are 30 and even against the likes of Liechtenstein and Cyprus, it's a struggle. You have to really play well so it is not easy any more."
