Denmark – North Macedonia

The Scandinavian team will secure a decisive advantage in the match.

Denmark's national team has, over the last decade, gathered such a squad and level of play that before a couple of major tournaments it prompted restrained talk of them as one of the dark horses. However, nothing substantial the best Danish football generation since the 1990s has managed to win yet. Denmark's best result in recent years was the Euro 2020 semi-final, held across several European countries. Interestingly, the greatest excitement among the Danes arose before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when in the qualifying phase the Scandinavians won nine out of ten matches. However, the 2022 World Cup itself turned out to be a catastrophe for Denmark. In their group this team collected only one point, failing to beat Tunisia and Australia, after which they were sent home in disgrace. North Macedonia is less interesting from the perspective of the history of its playing form. After gaining independence, in more than thirty years Macedonians have reached only one major tournament — Euro 2020. Then in the group stage the team lost all three matches and ceased to compete. From time to time, North Macedonia reminds of itself with sensational results, such as wins in the qualifiers of various tournaments over Italy or Germany. However, systematically one can describe this team as a mediocre representative of European football. In the final playoff match, the winner of this pair will face the Czech Republic or Ireland. Bookmakers have identified the home side as the clear favorites for the upcoming game, offering odds of 1.30 on their victory. Denmark's national team, in the group stage of qualification, ceded the direct ticket to North America to Scotland. Moreover, before the decisive match in Glasgow the Danes were one point ahead of their rivals, but lost to them 2-4. A few days earlier, a draw with Belarus in Copenhagen greatly affected the Danish players' condition. The Scandinavians were considered by bookmakers to be the future winners of that match; Belarus was predicted to lose by a margin of three goals. North Macedonia finished the qualification with a defeat to Wales 1-7 and reached the playoff thanks to successes in the Nations League. The guests may spring a surprise, but preliminarily they are significantly weaker than the Danes who have managed to recover from November setbacks.