west germany compound danish blues published: sunday 5 october 2003, 14.44cet
goals from jürgen klinsmann and olaf thon moved franz beckenbauer's team into a position to progress from group 1, while eliminating denmark.
west germany beat denmark 2-0 to confirm themselves as real contenders yet again, while condemning josef piontek's team to an early exit and the end of an era.
while piontek brought lars olsen back in at the back, he opted to deploy morten olsen, one of the great sweepers, in midfield. not only out of position, but creaking at the age of 39, he was comfortably swept aside by his german counterparts. søren lerby subsequently struggled alongside morten olsen and was responsible for franz beckenbauer's team's early goal.
lerby headed across his own penalty area with ten minutes gone and when rudi völler challenged peter schmeichel, the loose ball dropped to jürgen klinsmann, who made no mistake. with michael laudrup marked out of the game, denmark, meanwhile, struggled to launch an attack of note.
west germany were in total command but were unable to find the goal their dominance warranted; frank mill headed against a post before, finally, with five minutes left, olaf thon – the smallest man on the pitch – headed in substitute pierre littbarski's corner.
