Denmark coach Lars Sondergaard mentioned his gamers relish the prospect to play towards “superpower” England at Sydney Football Stadium on Friday.
Sondergaard’s Thirteenth-ranked squad faces the European champion in a Group D match on the Women’s World Cup, with each groups on three factors after similar 1-0 victories.
“We hope we can spring a surprise,” he mentioned. “There’s a World Cup every four years, you don’t get many of these opportunities in your career. It would be a mortal sin not to enjoy it.”
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There is a familiarity between the 2 groups, Sondergaard mentioned, with a number of of his gamers enjoying on Women’s Super League sides alongside or towards Lioness gamers.
Asked if that makes fourth-ranked England a neater opponent for his Thirteenth-ranked crew, the coach mentioned: “It’s easier. But that said, it’s not going to be easy.”
Bayern Munich midfielder Pernille Harder, who is essential to Denmark’s play, is aware of among the England gamers higher than most, notably Millie Bright, her former teammate at Chelsea.
“I have felt Millie in training,” Harder mentioned with amusing. “She’s going 110% into the duels. She’s a great player. Obviously, yeah, she’s tough. It will be difficult, but I will do everything I can do to also make it difficult for her.”
The 30-year-old Harder mentioned familiarity will not be essentially a bonus for both crew.
“Both teams know much about each other. But of course, I think it’s always nice to know who you’re going up against,” she mentioned.
“I think the fact that some of the players on our team are playing in England it means that you know what you’re going to expect from them. You have done it before. That can be some kind of security in a way, compared to when we played against China when we had no idea about the players.”
Denmark’s opening recreation towards China was in Perth, a five-hour coast-to-coast flight from Sydney.
England, in the meantime, opened its marketing campaign towards Haiti in Brisbane, a brief one-hour flight away.
“I think we saw (the long travel) as a problem before we came to Australia but now we have gotten used to it… and I think we travel very comfortably,” Sondergaard mentioned. “And at least in training in the morning, they looked very fine.”
Denmark faces Haiti of their closing recreation of the group stage on Tuesday.
