Danish despair hard to hide

For Denmark, a 3-3 draw against pre-tournament favourites Italy in their Group B encounter in Aveiro took on the dimensions of a defeat as they squandered a 3-1 lead and conceded a last-minute equaliser.

Agger anguish
No one took the result harder than the team's highly-rated centre-half Daniel Agger. The Liverpool FC player, already a regular at senior international level, took refuge in the dugout for fully 15 minutes after the final whistle with his head in his hands. Speaking to uefa.com later, disappointment was etched all over his still callow face: this draw hurt like the worst defeat. He said: "I'm a bad loser. I hate to lose. That is my way. But tomorrow my head is up again."

Not good enough
Agger may not have been at his defensive best but his assured touches and ability and willingness to bring the ball out from the back to initiate attacks in this very attack-orientated Denmark side gave a hint of why Liverpool spent €8.4m to lure him from Brøndby IF last January. Asked about his own display, he said: "It is difficult to say but, as a defender, when the other team scores three goals it is not good enough."

One half
He added: "The first ten minutes were not good enough, we soaked up a lot of pressure. But after that we scored three goals and controlled the game. So that was a good half but one half is not good enough."

No consolation
For Agger's central defensive partner Leon Andreasen, scoring one of the goals of the tournament was scant consolation. He told uefa.com: "It was a free-kick and the grass was a bit wet so I took a chance and luckily for me it went in. It was a goal, not the best goal but a goal is a goal." However, he admitted: "As a defender, you always prefer to keep a clean sheet.

Deep disappointment
"We felt good at half-time. We talked a lot about not dropping back and being afraid of winning. Unfortunately, that is exactly what we did. And, of course, we were extremely disappointed with only one point. Of course, tomorrow we might be happy with one point but right now it is extremely disappointing."

Ready for Dutch
The focus now for the downhearted Danes is Friday's tie with the Netherlands, who lost their opener to Ukraine. Andreasen said: "Holland are going to come with everything they've got. I don't really know Holland and have not seen them play. I have heard good and bad things about them, but after losing their first match they are definitely going to come with everything they've got. So we have to get ourselves together and be ready for Friday." Those sentiments were echoed by Agger: "We have to get our heads up and carry on, play some football and enjoy the game."