Wasteful Denmark kept in check

Estonia 2-2 Denmark
UEFA EURO 2004™ hopefuls Denmark were held to a 2-2 draw by Estonia in a friendly in Tallinn today after failing to convert a flood of chances.

Cool finish
Denmark, who will face Italy, Bulgaria and Sweden in Group C in Portugal, quickly gained control of the match with some fine possession football and Jon Dahl Tomasson duly opened the scoring for the visitors with a cool finish in the 28th minute after Dennis Rommedahl had worked his way into the box and found the AC Milan striker unmarked.

Estonia equaliser
But thereafter Denmark spurned their chances and Estonia, who had previously failed to create a single opening, equalised through a Kristen Viikmäe header in the 77th minute. Danish honour was restored when Kenneth Perez put them back in front three minutes later, the substitute pouncing on to a rebound after Estonia's goalkeeper, Martin Kaalma, had parried a Danish header.

Deflected leveller
But the Estonians were not beaten and Joel Lindpere's last-minute shot from outside the box came off a Danish defender and flew over goalkeeper Thomas Sørensen. "Our play lacked quality and precision," said Denmark coach Morten Olsen. "We should have won this game and we cannot afford this kind of play at EURO 2004™. We made two mistakes and this is not allowed for a team of our quality."

'Very happy'
Estonia's coach Arno Pijpers added: "I'm very happy we managed to score twice against such a strong team." Denmark play one more friendly, against fellow qualifiers Croatia in Copenhagen on 5 June, before heading off to Portugal where they open their campaign against Italy in Guimarães on 14 June.