Dutch and Danes start together again

For the second major tournament in succession, the Netherlands and Denmark will meet in their opening game, with the Oranje hoping for a similar result at UEFA EURO 2012 as they achieved at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Head-to-head record
• The teams are meeting for the 31st time, with the Netherlands' record in the previous games reading W12 D10 L8.

• The sides' four previous UEFA European Championship fixtures brought two Dutch wins, one Danish victory and a draw.

• Denmark have not beaten the Netherlands in eight games – five draws and three defeats – since a 3-2 UEFA European Championship qualifying success in Copenhagen on 4 October 1967.

• Their first encounter came in Stockholm on 2 July 1912, with Denmark beating the Netherlands 4-1 in the semi-finals of the Olympic football tournament. Denmark lost the final 4-2 to a Great Britain side, while the Dutch beat Finland 9-0 to take the bronze medal.

Selected previous meetings
14 June 2010: Netherlands 2-0 Denmark (Agger og 46, Kuyt 85) – Soccer City, Johannesburg, 2010 FIFA World Cup group stage
Netherlands: Stekelenburg, Van der Wiel, Heitinga, Mathijsen, Van Bronckhorst, Van Bommel, Sneijder, De Jong (De Zeeuw 88), Van der Vaart (Elia 67), Kuyt, Van Persie (Afellay 77).
Denmark: Sørensen, Jacobsen, Kjær, Agger, S Poulsen, Jørgensen, C Poulsen, Enevoldsen (Grønkjær 57), Kahlenberg (Eriksen 73), Rommedahl, Bendtner (Beckmann 62).

• After this, their most recent encounter, the Oranje won Group E and went on to reach the final; Denmark finished third in the section.

16 June 2000: Netherlands 3-0 Denmark (Kluivert 57, R de Boer 66, Zenden 77) – De Kuip, Rotterdam, UEFA EURO 2000 group stage
Netherlands: Van der Sar (Westerveld 89), Reiziger, F de Boer, Konterman, Van Bronckhorst, Zenden, Cocu, Davids, Overmars (R de Boer 62), Bergkamp (Winter 76), Kluivert.
Denmark: Schmeichel, Henriksen, Heintze, Colding, Schjønberg (Helveg 82), A Nielsen (Tøfting 61), Gravesen (B Nielsen 67), Grønkjær, Tomasson, Sand, Bisgaard.

• The Netherlands' victory confirmed their progress from Group D and in the process ended the hopes of Bo Johansson's Denmark. Frank Rijkaard's hosts were knocked out in the last four by Italy.

22 June 1992: Denmark 2-2 Netherlands, Denmark won 5-4 on pens (Larsen 5 33; Bergkamp 23, Rijkaard 86) – Gamla Ullevi, Gothenburg, EURO '92 semi-finals
Netherlands: Van Breukelen, Van Tiggelen, R Koeman, Rijkaard, F de Boer (Kieft 46), Gullit, Wouters, Witschge, Roy (Van't Schip 115), Bergkamp, Van Basten.
Denmark: Schmeichel, Sivebæk, L Olsen, Andersen (Christiansen 70), Christofte, Piechnik, Jensen, Larsen, Vilfort, Povlsen, B Laudrup (Elstrup 57).

• Peter Schmeichel saved a Marco van Basten penalty to tilt the shoot-out in his side's favour before Kim Christofte's final, match-winning spot kick. Richard Møller Nielsen's men overcame Germany 2-0 in the final.

Form guide
• It is 45 years since Denmark's last victory over the Netherlands in October 1967 but they do go into the finals on a run of six competitive games unbeaten – five wins and a draw – since a 3-1 reverse against Portugal in Porto in qualifying.

• The Netherlands won their first nine UEFA EURO 2012 qualifiers, but lost the last – 3-2 in Sweden – with their place at the finals already certain.

• Denmark lost on their only previous visit to Ukraine, 1-0 against the home nation in a World Cup qualifier in Kyiv on 30 March 2005.

• The Netherlands drew 1-1 with Ukraine in a Donetsk friendly on 11 August 2010 in their only previous game in the country.

Team ties
• Denmark's Morten Olsen has coached in the Netherlands, leading AFC Ajax to the title in 1997/98, having brought in another Dane, Michael Laudrup, as a key player. Olsen was dismissed the following season.

• A number of Denmark players play their football in Dutch football:
Christian Eriksen (AFC Ajax, 2009-)
Nicklas Pedersen (FC Groningen, 2009-)
Simon Poulsen (AZ Alkmaar 2008-)
Lasse Schøne (sc Heerenveen 2005-06, De Graafschap 2006-08, NEC Nijmegen 2008-2012, AFC Ajax 2012-)
In addition, Andreas Bjelland will join FC Twente after UEFA EURO 2012.

• Eriksen and the Netherlands' Gregory van der Wiel are team-mates with Ajax.

• William Kvist and Khalid Boulahrouz spent 2011/12 together at VfB Stuttgart.

• Denmark's Nicklas Bendtner and Dutch international Robin van Persie are team-mates at Arsenal FC, though Bendtner spent the 2011/12 campaign on loan at Sunderland AFC.

• Denmark's Michael Krohn-Dehli played in the Netherlands for Ajax (2003-04, 2006-08), RKC Waalwijk (2004-06) and – on loan – Sparta Rotterdam (2007).

• Between 2008 and 2011, Michael Silberbauer was at FC Utrecht, where Kevin Strootman was a team-mate in the second half of 2010/11.

• Dennis Rommedahl had spells with PSV Eindhoven (1997-2004) and Ajax (2007-2010) and also played on loan for RKC Waalwijk (1997/98) and NEC Nijmegen (2008/09). At PSV he was team-mates with Wilfred Bouma and Mark van Bommel while he played alongside Maarten Stekelenburg, John Heitinga, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, and Van der Wiel at Ajax.

• Christian Poulsen made his Denmark debut in a 1-1 friendly draw against the Netherlands in Copenhagen on 10 November 2001; Martin Jørgensen hit Denmark's goal from the penalty spot.

• Huntelaar scored in a 1-1 draw with Denmark at the 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Championship in Portugal. He also registered twice for Ajax in a 2-1 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round win at FC København on 9 August 2006, but his side were eliminated following a 2-0 home defeat in the return leg.

• Wesley Sneijder scored twice in Ajax's 3-1 home win against Brøndby IF in the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round second leg.