| Denmark narrowly squeezed past a tentative Saudi Arabia in a drab Group C encounter in the Stade Felix Bollaert, Lens. Marc
Rieper's 68th-minute header decide the outcome of a game woefully lacking in quality all over the pitch. The powerful Danes
looked to rely heavily on their physical attributes attempting to utilise the height in their side along with the pace and ingenuity of
the Laudrup brothers. Saudi Arabia adopted strange tactics in the first half by sitting back and almost encouraging the Danes to
try to break them down. Brian Laudrup was central to all that was creative, setting up Jorgensen who missed badly after 33
minutes. However, the closest either side came to a goal in the opening period was when Saudi's Saeed al-Owairan tested
Peter Schmeichel with a superbly struck 25-yard free-kick on 42 minutes. After the interval Saudi Arabia at least upped their
tempo and tried to involve the talented Sami al-Jaber and Khalid al-Muwalid, their leading scorer in the qualifiers, but they
failed consistently to make in-roads through a resolute Denmark defence. Both sides were afforded plenty of possession, but
unforced errors by either side led to a chorus of boos, especially from the Danish contingent in the 38,140 crowd who
entertained themselves with a non-stop Mexican wave. However, the jeers turned to cheers on 68 minutes when Denmark's
Celtic defender Rieper had the easiest of tasks to nod into an empty net after being picked out by the excellent Brian Laudrup.
The Saudis made three substitutions in an attempt to rescue the game, but their initial negativity, for whatever reason, cost them
dearly and they never really deserved anything from the match on this poor performance. |
