Czech Republic vs Denmark: UEFA EURO 2020 match background, facts and stats

Buoyant after impressive victories in the round of 16, the Czech Republic and Denmark meet in Baku in the third UEFA EURO 2020 quarter-final with the Czechs having fond memories of the teams' last contest at this stage.

• This is Denmark's first EURO quarter-final since 2004, when they went down 3-0 against the Czechs at Porto's Estádio do Dragão.

• Group B runners-up Denmark dismantled Wales 4-0 in the first round of 16 tie at this tournament, before the Czech Republic put paid to the Netherlands' hopes with a 2-0 victory the following day.

• The winners of this tie will play Ukraine or England in the semi-finals at Wembley on 7 July.

Previous meetings

• The Czech Republic/Czechoslovakia and Denmark have met on 25 previous occasions, the Czechs recording 13 wins and only two defeats. Five of the last six fixtures between the sides have ended all square, however, the exception a 3-0 Danish away win in Olomouc in qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in which Andreas Cornelius (57) and Simon Kjær (67) both scored their first goals for Denmark.

• Denmark's only other victory against the Czechs was a 2-1 home success in 2002 World Cup qualifying.

• The sides' last meeting was a 1-1 friendly draw in Mladá Boleslav on 15 November 2016. Antonín Barák's eighth-minute opener for the Czech hosts – on his international debut – was cancelled out by Nicolai Jørgensen seven minutes before half-time for the Danes. Tomáš Koubek, Tomáš Kalas, substitute Pavel Kadeřábek and debutant Tomáš Souček were also in the home line-up, with Frederik Rønnow, Kjær, Jens Stryger Larsen, Daniel Waas, Mathias Jørgensen and substitute Jannik Vestergaard featuring for the Danes.

• Denmark's last EURO quarter-final appearance ended in a 3-0 defeat by the Czech Republic, Jan Koller (49) and Milan Baroš (63, 65) getting the goals in Porto in the last eight of UEFA EURO 2004. That remains the Czechs' biggest win in a EURO finals and Denmark's joint heaviest defeat.

• Current Czech assistant coach Tomáš Galásek was in the side for that game while Jaroslav Šilhavý, now head coach, was an assistant.

• The Czech Republic were also victorious in their only other EURO final tournament match against Denmark, two second-half Vladimír Šmicer goals (64, 67) securing a 2-0 victory in Liège in the group stage of UEFA EURO 2000.

• Czechoslovakia won ten of their 15 games against Denmark (D5), although three of their four UEFA European Championship fixtures ended level – the exception a 5-1 Czechoslovakian win in the 1960 round of 16 second leg (7-3 aggregate).

EURO facts: Czech Republic
• The Czech Republic have qualified for every EURO final tournament since Czechoslovakia split in 1993.

• They won the competition as part of Czechoslovakia in 1976 and reached the final in their first appearance as the Czech Republic in 1996, losing 2-1 to Germany.

• The Czech Republic also reached the semi-finals at UEFA EURO 2004 and the quarter-finals eight years later.

• In 2016, the Czechs finished bottom of their group having picked up one point from three games. Losses to Spain (0-1) and Turkey (0-2) sandwiched a 2-2 draw against Croatia in which the Czechs had rallied from two goals down. That was the only time they had avoided defeat – or found the net – in their last four EURO finals games prior to this year's tournament.

• Šilhavý's charges qualified for UEFA EURO 2020 as Group A runners-up behind England. A 5-0 loss at Wembley in their first fixture was one of three defeats the Czechs suffered in qualifying, although five wins ensured they finished with 15 points, four above third-placed Kosovo.

• At UEFA EURO 2020 itself, the Czechs opened with a 2-0 win against Scotland before a 1-1 draw against Croatia, both games at Hampden Park in Glasgow and all three of their goals scored by Patrik Schick. They were top of Group D going into Matchday 3, but a 1-0 loss to England at Wembley left them in third place.

• The Czechs then got the better of Group C winners the Netherlands at Budapest's Puskás Aréna in the last 16 thanks to goals from Tomáš Holeš (68) and Schick again (80) after the Dutch had gone down to ten men.

• Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic have won four of their five EURO quarter-finals, although they lost the last, against Portugal at UEFA EURO 2012 (0-1). They had previously beaten Romania in 1960 (2-0 a, 3-0 h), the Soviet Union in 1976 (2-0 h, 2-2 a), Portugal in 1996 (1-0) and Denmark in 2004 (3-0).

• The Czech Republic have played in Baku only once before, a 2-1 FIFA World Cup qualifying victory against Azerbaijan at the Olympic Stadium in October 2017 with Barák scoring the decisive goal. That is also their only previous game in Azerbaijan.

EURO facts: Denmark
• This is Denmark's ninth appearance in the UEFA European Championship, but only their second in the past four editions. They were eliminated in the group stage at UEFA EURO 2012, finishing third in their section behind Germany and Portugal with three points from three games.

• The Danes lost to Scandinavian neighbours Sweden in the UEFA EURO 2016 play-offs, going down 4-3 on aggregate (1-2 a, 2-2 h).

• Denmark were winners at EURO '92, finished fourth in 1964 and reached the semi-finals in 1984. Their most recent knockout appearance came in 2004, when they suffered that 3-0 defeat to the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals. Before this tournament, they had not won a EURO knockout game since their 2-0 victory over Germany in the 1992 final.

• The Danes booked their place at UEFA EURO 2020 by finishing second behind Switzerland in Group D despite remaining unbeaten in their eight qualifiers (W4 D4). They reached the finals with a 1-1 draw away to the Republic of Ireland in their final qualifier.

• Denmark are one of five teams to have reached UEFA EURO 2020 unbeaten along with Belgium, Italy – who both won every game, runs they extended at the final tournament into their quarter-final meeting in Munich – Spain and Ukraine. They are the only one of the five who did not top their qualifying group.

• Åge Hareide, who oversaw the successful qualifying campaign, was replaced by Kasper Hjulmand following the postponement of UEFA EURO 2020; the former Nordsjælland coach had been due to take over from Hareide after the tournament.

• Denmark's three group games all took place at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, where they lost to Finland (0-1) and Belgium (1-2) before a thrilling 4-1 win against Russia that snatched second place in the section.

• The Danes carried that winning form into the round of 16, brushing aside Wales at the Johan Cruijff ArenA in Amsterdam thanks to goals from Kasper Dolberg (27, 48), Joakim Mæhle (88) and Martin Braithwaite (90+4).

• The defeat of Russia ended Denmark's four-game losing run in the EURO final tournament. They have now won only four of their last 14 EURO finals matches (D2 L8), losing five of the last eight.

• Denmark's record in EURO quarter-final ties is W1 L1. They beat Luxembourg in 1964 (3-3 a, 2-2 h, 1-0 replay) but lost 3-0 to the Czech Republic in 2004.

• This is Denmark's first game in Azerbaijan.

Links and trivia

• Kasper Schmeichel was in goal for the Leicester side that lost to Slavia Praha in the 2020/21 UEFA Europa League round of 32; Jan Bořil, David Zima, Tomáš Holeš and Lukáš Masopust all featured in the tie for Slavia.

• Kjær's Sevilla were eliminated by Slavia in the 2018/19 UEFA Europa League round of 16; Alex Král, Bořil, Tomáš Souček, Masopust and Vladimír Coufal featured in the tie for the Czech side.

• Coufal, Souček and Bořil helped Slavia to a 1-0 away win and 0-0 home draw in the 2018/19 UEFA Europa League group stage against an FC Copenhagen team including Robert Skov, Nicolai Boilesen and Jonas Wind.

• Have played together:
Tomáš Vaclík & Simon Kjær (Sevilla 2018/19)
Jakub Jankto & Mikkel Damsgaard (Sampdoria 2020–)
Robert Skov & Pavel Kadeřábek (Hoffenheim 2019–)
Patrik Schick & Yussuf Poulsen (Leipzig 2019/20)
Antonín Barák & Jens Stryger Larsen (Udinese 2017–20)

• Schick scored past Denmark's reserve goalkeeper Frederik Rønnow in Bayer Leverkusen's 2-1 Bundesliga win against Schalke on 3 April.

• Skov's goal past Tomáš Koubek was not enough to prevent Hoffenheim suffering a 4-2 Bundesliga defeat at home to Augsburg on 13 December 2019.

• Jannik Vestergaard also scored past Koubek, in Denmark's 2-1 win against hosts the Czech Republic on Matchday 1 of the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship in Prague. Andreas Christensen, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and Yussuf Poulsen also played for the Danes, with Kadeřábek in the Czech side.

• Schick has also scored against Denmark at U21 level, in a 4-2 defeat on Matchday 3 of the 2017 finals. Christian Nørgaard and Mathias Jensen played for Denmark, Souček and Jankto for the Czech Republic.

Penalty shoot-outs

• The Czech Republic have won all of their three competitive penalty shoot-outs:
5-3 v West Germany, 1976 UEFA European Championship final (as Czechoslovakia)
9-8 v Italy, 1980 UEFA European Championship third-place play-off (as Czechoslovakia)
6-5 v France, EURO '96 semi-finals

• Denmark's shoot-out record is W2 L2:
4-5 v Spain, 1984 UEFA European Championship semi-final
5-4 v Netherlands, EURO '92 semi-final
4-2 v Mexico, 1995 FIFA Confederations Cup group stage
2-3 v Croatia, 2018 FIFA World Cup round of 16

Latest news

Czech Republic
• Tomáš Holeš crowned his 12th cap for the Czech Republic by scoring and assisting the team's two goals in the round of 16 win against the Netherlands. His only previous international goal had come in a 2-1 friendly win away to Cyprus in October 2020 on his second appearance, the first having come the previous month.

• Patrik Schick has scored the Czech Republic's other four goals at UEFA EURO 2020, taking his overall international tally to 15 in 30 matches. He also found the net in the team's final pre-tournament warm-up fixture, a 3-1 win against Albania in Prague on 8 June, so, after drawing a blank in the 1-0 defeat by England, has five in his last five matches.

• The 2-0 win against the Netherlands was only the Czechs' second victory in eight EURO final tournament encounters (D2 L4) since they defeated Poland 1-0 on Matchday 3 at UEFA EURO 2012. The other was against Scotland in their UEFA EURO 2020 opener.

• Schick's double against Scotland was only the third for the Czech Republic at a EURO final tournament, after Vladimír Šmicer in 2000 and Milan Baroš in 2004, who both scored twice against Denmark. Schick's second goal was struck from a distance of 49.7 metres, the furthest out in EURO finals history.

• Schick needs one more goal at this tournament to join Baroš as the Czech Republic's all-time top scorer at the EURO finals.

• Lukáš Masopust and Ondřej Čelůstka also found the net in the friendly win against Albania – a result that ended a three-match winless run for the Czech Republic, who four days earlier had crashed to a 4-0 defeat against Italy in Bologna, a game in which Michal Sadílek came off the bench to make his international debut.

• There has been a major overhaul of the Czech squad in the five years since UEFA EURO 2016, with just three players remaining from that tournament in France – Vladimír Darida, goalkeeper Tomáš Vaclík and defender Pavel Kadeřábek. Another player with EURO finals experience is striker Tomáš Pekhart, who was a squad member alongside Darida in 2012.

• Darida, the Czech captain, missed the match against the Netherlands through injury.

• There are five players in Jaroslav Šilhavý's selection from the Slavia Praha side that went unbeaten domestically in 2020/21, winning the Czech league and cup double, and also reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League – Masopust, Holeš, Jan Bořil, Petr Ševčík and David Zima.

• Pekhart was also a Polish league title winner in the 2020/21 season with Legia Warszawa, topping the Ekstraklasa scoring charts with 22 goals, while fellow striker Michael Krmenčík spent the first half of the season with prospective Belgian champions Club Brugge before moving on loan to PAOK, with whom he won the Greek Cup, scoring the late winner in the final against champions Olympiacos.

• Sparta Praha's 18-year-old striker Adam Hložek, the youngest member of Šilhavý's squad and a substitute in all four UEFA EURO 2020 games so far, was the joint top scorer in the 2020/21 Czech Liga with 15 goals.

• Former Slavia players Tomáš Souček and Vladimír Coufal were both instrumental in helping West Ham United finish sixth in the Premier League to secure a place in next season's UEFA Europa League group stage.

Denmark
• Denmark became the first team in EURO final tournament history to score four goals in successive matches as they followed up their 4-1 win over Russia on Matchday 3 with a 4-0 victory against Wales in the round of 16. However, two days later Spain eclipsed that record by scoring five goals for the second EURO game running.

• Denmark are also the first team ever to have qualified as group runners-up for the knockout phase of a EURO final tournament with one win and two defeats. Northern Ireland came through their section at UEFA EURO 2016 with the same record, but as one of the best third-placed teams – a feat repeated at this tournament by Ukraine.

• The success against Wales was Denmark's 11th win in their last 15 matches (D1 L3). Despite the earlier Group B defeats against Finland and Belgium they have lost just four of their last 32 games (W19 D9), two of the others having also been against Belgium, in the 2020/21 UEFA Nations League (0-2 h, 2-4 a).

• Yussuf Poulsen's goal against Russia was his second in successive games at UEFA EURO 2020 and his third at a major tournament following his winner against Peru at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He now has ten goals in 57 internationals but missed the win against Wales through injury.

• Mikkel Damsgaard, Andreas Christensen and Joakim Mæhle all found the net for the first time in a major tournament – and in the UEFA European Championship, qualifying games included – with their goals against Russia. Damsgaard's was his first in a competitive game.

• Kasper Dolberg marked his first major tournament start with Denmark's first two goals against Wales, while Mæhle found the net for the second successive game, matching the feat of Poulsen and four other players – Frank Arnesen, Preben Elkjær, Henrik Larsen and Jon Dahl Tomasson – in scoring in two successive Denmark games at the EURO finals. No one has yet managed to make it three in a row.

• Martin Braithwaite's late strike against Wales was the Barcelona forward's tenth international goal and his first at a major tournament.

• Christian Eriksen and captain Simon Kjær were the only two members of Kasper Hjulmand's squad to have previously played in a EURO final tournament before Matchday 1. They both started all three matches in 2012, when Kasper Schmeichel and Daniel Wass were unused members of the 23-man party.

• Kjær won his 110th cap against Russia, overtaking Eriksen to move to fourth place outright in Denmark's all-time list. He was injured and substituted in the following game against Wales.

• Eriksen was an Italian Serie A winner with Internazionale in 2020/21, while Christensen assisted in Chelsea's UEFA Champions League triumph. Domestic cups were also won in England by Schmeichel (Leicester City), in Germany by Thomas Delaney (Borussia Dortmund) and in Spain by Braithwaite (Barcelona).