england held by diligent denmark published: sunday 5 october 2003, 15.17cet
the stand-in contenders held their own and might have won as john jensen's effort hit the post.
john jensen came closest to breaking the deadlock as emergency stand-in contenders denmark opened their euro '92 campaign with a 0-0 draw against england.
with injuries forcing john barnes and gary stevens to withdraw from the england squad before the tournament, graham taylor's side had their concerns going into the fixture in malmo. they would have had even more had jensen's strike not rebounded back off the inside of the post and into the arms of goalkeeper chris woods in the closing stages.
denmark replaced yugoslavia at the finals, but looked to be worthy stand-ins as they gave england a rough ride from the off, with flemming povlsen firing an early free-kick just off target. england, meanwhile, went close midway through the opening period, alan smith almost beating peter schmeichel at his near post.
the manchester united fc goalkeeper got a crucial fingertip to a tony daley shot after the break, but ultimately there were no goals. with the other opener in group a having also ended in a draw, it was to be back to square one for all four sides in their next fixtures.
