A place in the quarter-finals was not the only thing at stake. The match between Germany and Denmark also had a lot of prestige. And quite a bit of drama. Denmark won with a final score of 4-5 after penalty shots (1-1, 1-0, 1-2, 0-0, 1-2).
Denmark, ranked 14th in the world, started out as the stronger team against Germany, ranked 7th, and also took the lead when Steffen Jensen took advantage of a mistake by a German back. In an even first period, Germany worked their way into the game and evened out the score thanks to 18-year-old Tino von Pritzbuer with a fantastic shot at the top corner of the goal, tying the score at 1-1.
Beginning with the second period, things started to be more and more about Germany. But Denmark, and in particular Mike Trolle Wede, who was in the lead of the goalkeeper’s league before the match, stood their ground. It took a really tremendous goal by Matthias Siede to outsmart Trolle Wede. Siede met Dominic Mucha’s high pass and scored 2-1 on volley, in what became the period’s only goal.
The third period had not gone on for two minutes when Germany increased their lead. The Mucha twins, using some great wall passing, managed to get past the Danish defenders and Dominic scored on an open goal. But the Danes did not give up. With two and a half minutes remaining, Brian Nielsen scored 3-2 and mere seconds later, Stefan Hedorf scored 3-3.
Extra time resulted in no goals, which lead to penalty shots. Denmark kept their cool and Brian Nielsen became their hero by scoring the decisive goal in the sixth penalty round.
Now the Danish team will face Czech Republic in the quarter-finals.
Photo: Miina Anahita.
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