Denmark and Portugal gear up for round three

Denmark and Portugal will meet for the third time in this UEFA EURO 2012 campaign with the Danes hoping to maintain the supremacy they have enjoyed in the sides' recent qualifying encounters.

• The teams come into the contest in contrasting moods; Michael Krohn-Dehli scored the only goal as Denmark upset the Netherlands in Kharkiv, while Portugal went down to Germany by the same scoreline in Lviv.

Head-to-head record
• The nations are playing for a 13th time, with Denmark's record in their previous contests reading W3 D2 L7.

• Denmark finished as group winners when pitted against Portugal in both UEFA EURO 2012 and 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying, winning 3-2 in Lisbon and drawing 1-1 at home in the latter instance. Both times Portugal finished second and beat Bosnia and Herzegovina in the play-offs.

• The countries first met in a friendly in Esbjerg on 21 June 1966, which Portugal won 3-1. Indeed the Portuguese triumphed in the sides' first six matches, and it took until their eighth attempt – a 4-2 friendly win in Brondby on 1 September 2006 – for Denmark to record a first victory in this fixture.

• Denmark have won three of the last five meetings between the two sides – all within the past five years, all under current coach Morten Olsen – but their most recent victory was their first in five UEFA European Championship games, with three of the first four ending in defeat.

• Nicklas Bendtner has scored in all three of his competitive games against Portugal and also in a 4-2 friendly victory. He has yet to be on the losing side in this fixture.

• Nani may be Portugal's talisman having scored three times in his four outings against Denmark, including on his senior international debut in September 2006.

Selected previous meetings
11 October 2011: Denmark 2-1 Portugal (Krohn-Dehli 13, Bendtner 63; Cristiano Ronaldo 90+2) – Parken Stadion, Copenhagen, UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying
Denmark: Sørensen, Jacobsen, Bjelland, Kjær, Silberbauer (S Poulsen 76), Kvist, Zimling, Rommedahl (J Poulsen 87), Eriksen, Krohn-Dehli, Bendtner.
Portugal: Rui Patrício, João Pereira, Rolando, Bruno Alves, Eliseu (Miguel Veloso 65), Carlos Martins (Ricardo Quaresma 65), Raul Meireles, João Moutinho, Nani, Hélder Postiga (Nuno Gomes 78), Cristiano Ronaldo.

8 October 2010: Portugal 3-1 Denmark (Nani 29 30, Cristiano Ronaldo 85; Ricardo Carvalho 79og) – Estádio do Dragão, Porto, UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying
Portugal: Eduardo, João Pereira, Pepe, Ricardo Carvalho, Fábio Coentrão, João Moutinho, Raul Meireles, Carlos Martins (Tiago 75), Nani (Silvestre Varela 88), Cristiano Ronaldo, Hugo Almeida (Hélder Postiga 69).
Denmark: Sørensen (Lindegaard 32), Kjær, Krøldrup, Jacobsen, C Poulsen, Silberbauer, Jensen (Eriksen 58), Kvist (Løvenkrands 72), Vingaard, Pedersen, Rommedahl.

• Having lost in Portugal in their first qualifying meeting, Olsen's side turned the tables in the return fixture to seal first place in Group H, and force Paulo Bento's charges into the aforementioned play-off against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

9 June 1996: Denmark 1-1 Portugal (Brian Laudrup 22; Sá Pinto 53) – Hillsborough, Sheffield, EURO '96 group stage
Denmark: Schmeichel, Helveg, Rieper, Høgh, Risager, Larsen (Vilfort 90), M Laudrup, B Nielsen, Thomsen (Piechnik 83), B Laudrup, Beck.
Portugal: Vítor Baía, Paulinho Santos, Hélder Cristóvão, Fernando Couto, Dimas, Oceano (António Folha 37), Paulo Sousa (José Tavares 79), Sá Pinto, Luís Figo (Domingos 62), João Pinto, Rui Costa.

• The teams' only previous meeting at a major final tournament came in their opening fixture at EURO '96; Richard Møller Nielsen's Danes led but Sá Pinto replied for António Oliveira's side. Portugal went on to win Group D, while the Danes bowed out with a third-placed finish.

Form guide
• Winners in 1992, Denmark failed to reach UEFA EURO 2008. Prior to that, they had competed at every UEFA European Championship finals since 1984, when they reached the semi-finals, but lost out to Spain on penalties.

• Having made their debut at the 1984 finals, Portugal have featured at every UEFA European Championship since EURO '96. They have never failed to progress beyond the group stage, famously reaching the final on home soil at UEFA EURO 2004 but losing to outsiders Greece.

Team ties
• Denmark's Daniel Agger and Christian Poulsen were team-mates of Portugal midfielder Raul Meireles at Liverpool FC in the 2010/11 season.

• Thomas Kahlenberg played with Ricardo Costa at VfL Wolfsburg up until the Portugal defender's departure for LOSC Lille Métropole on loan at the start of 2010.

• Portugal coach Bento had some notable Danish team-mates in his days as a midfielder. He played alongside Peter Møller at Real Oviedo from 1998 to 2000 and Peter Schmeichel at Sporting Clube de Portugal in 2000/01.

• Denmark right-back Daniel Wass signed a five-year contract with SL Benfica in May 2011 but two months later he was loaned to French club Évian Thonon Gaillard FC.

• João Pereira, who recently agreed a deal to join Valencia CF, captained Sporting Clube de Portugal for the first time in Denmark in last August's UEFA Europa League play-off first leg against FC Nordsjælland.

• Former Portugal international Maniche (birth name Nuno Ricardo de Oliveira Ribeiro) was given his nickname due to his resemblance to Michael Manniche, the Danish international who represented SL Benfica between 1983 and 1987.

Competition format
• If two or more teams finish level on points, Articles 8.07 and 8.08 of the UEFA EURO 2012 regulations apply. In May Article 8.07 was amended after being approved by the UEFA Executive Committee. It now reads:
If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:
a) Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
b) Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question;
c) Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;
d) If, after having applied criteria a) to c), two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria a) to c) are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine the final rankings of the two teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria e) to i) apply in the order given;
e) superior goal difference in all group matches;
f) higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
g) position in the UEFA national team coefficient ranking system (see annex I, paragraph 1.2.2);
h) fair play conduct of the teams (final tournament);
i) drawing of lots

• The Group B coefficients are as follows:
Netherlands 40.860
Germany 40.446
Portugal 31.717
Denmark 31.205

• Article 8.08 reads: if two teams which have the same number of points, the same number of goals scored and conceded play their last group match against each other and are still equal at the end of that match, the ranking of the two teams in question is determined by kicks from the penalty mark provided no other teams within the group have the same number of points on completion of all group matches. Should more than two teams have the same number of points, the criteria listed under paragraph 8.07 apply.