The hosts reach the quarter-finals of Euro 2024 despite a storm in Dortmund. Check out the best facts, stats and Opta data with our Germany vs Denmark stats page.
Germany booked their place in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024 with a 2-0 win over Denmark on Saturday, but not without the intervention of extreme weather and the video assistant referee.
A penalty from Kai Havertz was followed by a third goal of the tournament for Jamal Musiala in the second half at BVB Stadion, as the hosts set up a last-eight meeting with either Spain or Georgia.
The only previous knockout-stage tie between these two nations was the final of Euro 92, which Denmark won 2-0. Unfortunately for Kasper Hjulmand’s side, lightning did not strike twice, apart from in a more literal way.
The game was disrupted by a weather delay after thunder and lightning arrived in Dortmund, but it was a VAR storm that ultimately defined this game, with Denmark seeing a goal disallowed for the narrowest of offsides, before conceding a debatable penalty for handball moments later.
Havertz tucked away the penalty, before Musiala tied things up with a moment of quality to go level at the top of the Euro 2024 scoring charts.
With an average age of 29 years and 117 days, Germany fielded their oldest starting XI at a Euros since a 1-1 draw against Romania at Euro 2000 (30 years and 86 days), but their start suggested they weren’t impacted by the ravages of age.
Julian Nagelsmann’s side began on the front foot, and the decibels from the stands rose inside four minutes when Nico Schlotterbeck leapt high to head in a Toni Kroos corner, but his goal was disallowed for a block by Joshua Kimmich on Andreas Christensen.
Kimmich stung the right hand of Kasper Schmeichel with a shot from range moments later, while Havertz met a ball over the top from Antonio Rüdiger with a well-struck volley that the Danish goalkeeper had to palm wide.
At the other end, Christian Eriksen brought down a long ball beautifully before his shot was pushed wide, but it was a lonely start for Rasmus Højlund. After 15 minutes, Eriksen’s Manchester United teammate had applied more pressures than any other player in the match (20), though was yet to have a single touch of the ball.
As lightning was spotted in the sky, the storm on the pitch had subsided for Denmark, who had come through Germany’s fast start unscathed.
Such was the closeness of the lightning to the stadium, referee Michael Oliver took the players off the field while the storm moved away. After a delay of around 20 minutes, the game resumed in calmer conditions.
Germany were far from calm, though, once again attacking Denmark quickly and going close again as Havertz saw a header pushed away by Schmeichel, before Schlotterbeck found the side-netting with another headed effort.
After a quiet half, though, it was Højlund who could and probably should have struck first. After picking Schlotterbeck’s pocket in the Germany box and hitting the side-netting with his shot, he ran onto a pass from Thomas Delaney as Denmark countered, but Manuel Neuer rushed out to deny him a simple finish.
There seemed to be a threat that the second half would be delayed, but after a bit of conversation, Oliver was permitted to blow his whistle. This time, it was Denmark who started quickly, and they had the ball in the net in the 48th minute.
Naturally, there was another delay as the VAR looked at Joachim Andersen’s strike, and there was an almighty cheer from the home fans when it was ruled out for a narrow offside against Delaney in the build-up.
Just seconds later, Andersen’s hand was the subject of a VAR check, with David Raum’s cross hitting the defender and leading to a penalty for Germany. Havertz stuttered up to his penalty and put his shot just inside Schmeichel’s left-hand post to break the deadlock.
It was the fifth penalty scored by Germany at the European Championship, with only the Netherlands and France netting more (both six). It was also Havertz’s fourth goal in the competition, only Jürgen Klinsmann and Mario Gomez (both five goals) have more.
If there was controversy about the first, there was none about the second.
After a 28-pass move from Germany, Musiala raced onto the 29th from Schlotterbeck, who hit a long ball to the Bayern Munich man to get in behind the Danish defence, before Musiala expertly curled his finish past Schmeichel low into the far corner.
The 21-year-old moved level with Georgia’s Georges Mikautadze in the race for the Euro 2024 Golden Boot after slotting his third goal of the tournament.
Musiala’s fellow youngster Florian Wirtz came off the bench and thought he’d added a third with a cheeky finish in stoppage time, but he was denied by the offside flag.
While Denmark will feel hard done by in terms of decisions, in truth Germany were the better team on the night, with Kroos once again oozing quality as he dictated play in the middle of the pitch.
The Real Madrid midfielder completed 324 passes in the group stage, the most ever by a player in a single group stage at the European Championship. In Dortmund on Saturday night, he completed 88 of 92 passes (95.7%), while creating a game-high four chances. Kroos’ retirement is impending, but Germany fans and neutrals alike will be happy to see his career still has at least another 90 minutes to run.
Denmark exit Euro 2024 without recording a win, having drawn all three of their group games. In fact, they have only won three of their last 16 matches at major tournaments (World Cup/Euros), drawing seven and losing six; winless in their last seven such games (D4 L4).
As for Germany, they head to the last eight looking to weather the storm all the way to glory on home soil.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Germany vs Denmark stats from their Euro 2024 last-16 clash at the BVB Stadion in Dortmund.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
Germany vs Denmark: Post-Match Facts
- Only Jürgen Klinsmann and Mario Gomez (both 5) have scored more goals for Germany at the UEFA European Championship finals than Kai Havertz (4), while he’s netted five goals in his last 10 games for the national team.
- Only Wayne Rooney (4) has scored more goals aged 21 and under at the European Championship than Germany’s Jamal Musiala (3), while he’s scored more goals at this Euros in four games than in his first 29 appearances for the national team (2).
- Germany have reached the quarter-finals of a major competition for the first time since doing so at Euro 2016, reaching the semi-finals of that edition.
- Denmark have failed to win any of their last eight games at major competitions (D4 L4), with their last such victory coming in the quarter-finals of Euro 2020 against Czech Republic (2-1).
- Germany have now won three of their five encounters with Denmark at major competitions (World Cups/Euros – L2), with all three victories coming at the European Championship (1988 and 2012 also).
- Only France and Netherlands (both 6) have scored more penalties at the European Championship than Germany (5, not including shootouts), with only Euro 2020 (9) seeing more penalties scored than Euro 2024 (8).
- On what was his 50th cap for Germany, Havertz netted his 18th goal for the national team, with only Niclas Füllkrug (7) netting more goals since the appointment of Julian Nagelsmann than his six.
- Manuel Neuer made his 38th appearance for Germany at a major competition; the joint-most of any player for the national team alongside Bastian Schweinsteiger. Indeed, this was also his 19th appearance at the European Championship, the most of any German player.
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