Danes sunk by subs

Three changes
Needing a win to reach the last four, Austria coach Ernst Weber made three changes to the side that lost to Portugal on Friday, with midfield players Christoph Sauerer, Martin Frantisch and Helmut König coming into the side as Horvath, Mayer and the suspended Franz Schiemer dropped out. Meanwhile Denmark coach Hans Brun Larsen, needing a draw to progress, kept faith with the side that beat Hungary 2-0.

Opening exchanges
Austria's Andreas Schicker picked up a booking in the eighth minute for handball, also ruling him out of the semi-finals, but otherwise there were few noteworthy incidents in the opening exchanges as both sides looked understandably nervous.

Pichler shot
In the eleventh minute a through ball by Christian Fuchs picked out Austria captain Sascha Pichler, but he hit his shot straight at Denmark goalkeeper Kenneth Stenild Nielsen. The injection of excitement seemed to galvanise both teams and six minutes later Denmark's right-sided midfield player Danilo Arrieta Cerda burst into the penalty area and forced a low save out of Robert Olejnik.

Fuchs tries his luck
Fuchs tried his luck from long range and Andres Dober became the second Austrian to enter the referee’s book, and be ruled out of their next game, when he was penalised for a two-footed challenge. On 22 minutes a superb exchange between Austria's Daniel Pirker, Fuchs and König ended with the latter curling a shot into Nielsen’s arms.

Olejnik beaten
Denmark came even closer to opening the scoring after 31 minutes when Jakob Rasmussen's superb curling free-kick from fully 30 metres beat Olejnik but rebounded to safety off the Austrian crossbar.

Mayer volley
Denmark went into the interval knowing that it the game stayed goalless they would be through but just two minutes into the second half the match was turned on its head when Mayer', who replaced König at the interval, athletically volleyed past Nielsen from ten metres out to give Austria the lead.

Lindeneg effort
Five minutes later Mayer picked up a booking for unsporting behaviour that rules him out if the next game. Meanwhile Denmark tried their best to fight their way back into the game, with Mads Torry Lindeneg twisting through the Austrian defence before unleashing a shot that zipped over the crossbar. Midway through the half Marc Brockmann Olsen replaced Lasse Qvist as the Danes looked to stage a final rally while Frederik Lassen was also thrown on in place of Lindeneg.

Bravura finale
With 15 minutes remaining Bo Storm almost equalised when his low, hard shot took a slight deflection off an Austrian defender and trickled wide. In a tense finale the roused Danes poured forward whenever possible while the Austrians remained dangerous, with Pichler flashing a shot across the Danish goalmouth.

Danes bow out
At the other end an acrobatic Arrieta Cerda effort just cleared the Austrian crossbar, but Austria's progress was secured in injury time when Daniel Horvath, a 72nd-minute substitute, drove the ball past Nielsen to make it 2-0.