Denmark will not make its seventh appearance at a FIFA World Cup when football’s biggest show will be staged in the United States, Canada, and Mexico this summer. That is the consequence after Michal Sadilek buried the final penalty beyond the reach of Danish keeper Mads Hermansen in the dramatic shootout in the final play-off qualifier in Prague, Tuesday night.
To be honest, I haven’t felt such a void since Jose Mario Bakero intentionally bumped into Peter Schmeichel, allowing Fernando Hierro to score on that dreadful night in Seville when Denmark missed out on the 1994 World Cup, despite playing 11 against 10 for the majority of the match.
But Spain was already turning into a world power in 1994, and judging from the strength of the opposition, yesterday’s defeat was a much bigger disappointment. In fact, Brian Riemer’s qualifying campaign for the 2026 World Cup will go down in history as the biggest disaster for Danish football ever.
As one of the top-seeded nations, Denmark went into the World Cup qualifying campaign as one of the biggest favorites to qualify for the World Cup. Pitted against Scotland, Greece, and Belarus, Denmark had never been drawn in a seemingly easier group to qualify for the World Cup.
Essentially its not a disaster to lose in Prague against a nation that was undefeated in 18 matches going into the decisive encounter. But it's a disaster to only be able to draw against Belarus in the comfort of your own home stadium when all you need is a win to ultimately qualify for the World Cup.
Ultimately, the failure to qualify falls on coach Brian Riemer and Football Director in the Danish FA, Peter Moller. When Kasper Hjulmand threw in the towel in the wake of EURO 2024, the Danish FA in October hired Brian Riemer in October 2024. That would never have happened in the Czech Republic, said Jakub Dvorak, Senior News Editor of Flashscore's Czech version, to me yesterday, and it shouldn't have.
Riemer had only been head coach in one club in his career (Anderlecht) before landing the Danish job, but the Danish FA always chose the cheapest solution, and even though there were obvious candidates, Thomas Frank, Bo Henriksen, and perhaps even Michael Laudrup, to mention some of the Danish options, the Danish FA went with the least experienced and today they are paying the price.
Realistically, perhaps two players from the Czech squad would have been able to sneak into the Danish lineup, but Rasmus Hojlund was the only one who was at his usual level on Tuesday night.
This has been a general problem for the Danes in the qualifying campaign to perform at a regular level, which is Riemer's responsibility. Denmark were clearly better than Belarus, Scotland, and the Czech Republic in the decisive matches, but they never managed to make it count.
In Prague, Denmark rarely managed to build up from the back despite having a host of players playing regularly at big international clubs. In games like these, you have to look Death in the eyes, but Riemer and Daniel Agger seemed paralysed on the bench in Prague in a match where Denmark always seemed to be one step behind, despite enjoying the majority of possession. The players' failure to take responsibility also became very evident in the shootout when three out of four shots were missed.
But the most astonishing situation did not happen on the pitch on Tuesday night but immediately after when Football Director of the Danish, Peter Moller, said that Riemer was not in danger of losing his job. Incredibly the Danish FA extended Riemer's contract until after the EURO 2028 already in October last year when the World Cup qualifying campaign obvisouly still wasn't completed.
It's going to be a long summer and the Danes' misery was compounded by the fact that both Sweden and Norway have both qualified. Five weeks of football's greatest spectacle but without the presence of Denmark. Ranked 20th in the world, Denmark still couldn't qualify among the 48 nations that will will travel to the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Misery, pure misery.