Madsen inspires Danes' comeback

Netherlands 1 Denmark 1

Martin Jorgensen's late penalty earned Denmark a 1-1 draw against the Netherlands in a friendly in Copenhagen on Saturday.

The Danes, who have qualified for next year's World Cup finals, dominated the first half but fell behind when Jan Heintze blatantly handled a ball from Ronald de Boer in the last minute of the first half. The Chelsea striker, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, slammed the penalty kick past Thomas Soerensen with ease.

The Dutch side welded together better in the second half after both sides made major replacements. Peter Madsen was brought on for the Danish striker Ebbe Sand and immediately added punch to the attack. After twice going close to scoring, Madsen was tripped near the Dutch goalmouth by a combination of Giovanni van Bronckhorst and George Boateng and Jorgensen drove home the 83rd minute spot kick.

The Danish coach, Morten Olsen, said: "We ought to have won. We had a couple of injuries and that forced us to play in a new way in the second half.

''Madsen had a terrific game and was dangerous all the time. He proved himself the match of seasoned defenders like Jaap Stam and Michael Reiziger."

The Dutch captain, Frank De Boer, tipped Denmark as dark horses for South Korea and Japan. "Denmark are World Cup outsiders," he said. "They have a team that can beat anybody on a good day.

"They play in a very Dutch fashion, with two fast wingers." In fact, they do it better than us at the moment."