At the start of their final group game, Denmark found themselves in third place on two points, and just behind them was their opposition for the evening, Serbia, on one point. A place in the round-of-16 was still possible for both sides – so it was all to play for in Munich.
An ultimately goalless tie saw both sides come close at times, with Denmark dominating for most of the 90 minutes, registering double the amount of shots in comparison to Serbia, who were denied by an offside decision in the second half.
As it happened
It was a feisty start to the game with both sides conceding multiple fouls in the opening 10 minutes, which included Serbia’s Nikola Milenkovic being shown a yellow card after four minutes.
Kasper Hjulmand’s men started as they meant to go on registering the first real chance of the match in the 15th minute, as Joakim Maehle crossed the ball from the edge of the box and found Alexander Bah who headed just wide of goal.
In the 20th minute, Predrag Rajkovic was called into action for Serbia after Eriksen powerfully struck the ball from just outside the box. Denmark continued to apply the pressure after this chance, winning a series of corners until Jonas Wind fouled the goalkeeper on his line, resulting in Serbia being able to regain possession for the first time since the opening 10 minutes.
However Dragan Stojkovic’s men were unable to create any chances in this period and just after the half hour mark Rajkovic was forced into another save, which denied Manchester United’s Rasmus Hojlund his first goal of the tournament.
Whilst Serbia had registered 40% of possession in the opening 45 minutes, the two notable times they were able to break forward Alexsander Mitrovic found himself offside releaving any further pressure off of the Denmark defence.
Despite Denmark registering a fair few chances in the first half, it was all level going in at the break.
It seemed as though Hjulmand’s men had come out in the second half as they had finished the first as Andreas Skov Olsen’s shot was blocked by Nikola Milenkovic.
Saying this, just minutes later Serbia had the ball in the back of the net, however it was immediately ruled out before celebrations could commence, as Luka Jovic was in an offside position and after a further VAR review the decision was upheld and the scoreline stayed 0-0.
Denmark registered three chances in just five minutes, with Christensen and Hjulmand’s shots going over the bar and soon after Vestergaard’s header in the centre of the box was saved by Rajkovic.
After returning to the pitch following treatment, Mitrovic looked to sneak his shot into the bottom right corner of goal but his strike went wide at the far post. The 29-year-old came close again two minutes later after Dusan Tadic’s cross found him in the box but his header was blocked.
In the latter stages of the match Serbia experienced a flurry of chances including one in the first minute of extra time, where Schmeichel was forced into a save after Milinkovic-Savic struck the ball through the sea of bodies from the edge of the box.
Following the final group stage matches, Denmark finished second and have secured their spot in the Round-of-16. As a result of Slovenia drawing against England, Serbia remain in fourth place and miss out on the chance to progress further in this years championships.
The lineups
DEN: Schmeichel, Andersen, Christensen, Vestergaard, Bah, Hjulmand, Hojbjerg, Maehle, Eriksen, Hojlund, Wind
SRB: Rajkovic, Pavlovic, Milenkovic, Velkovic, Zivkovic, Gudelj, Ilic, Mijailovic, Lukic, Samardzic, Mitrovic