“There’s nothing better than knowing we haven’t beaten Spain since 1993”

The new Danish soccer coach, Brian Riemer, emphasized on Tuesday that nothing motivates him more than playing in the UEFA Nations League against Spain, the rival who has done the worst for Denmark in history. “This is the greatest possible motivation. There’s nothing better than knowing we haven’t beaten Spain since 1993“said Riemer at the press conference where he presented the call for that match and that of Serbia, the last two for his team in the group stage of the tournament.

Denmark have won just two of 18 against Spain, the rivals who eliminated them in the semifinals of Euro 84threw perhaps the best Danish team in history to Mexico 86 and left him without going to the World Cup USA 94. In the last eight matches, most recently in Murcia in October, the Red Dynamite are almost unbeaten (in 1995) for seven defeats, a streak Riemer takes as a challenge.

“We think we should be ready, we know we have to play at the highest level“said the Danish coach, who assured that the team has a lot of faith in itself, but also has “great” respect for Spain. Riemer also pointed out that the atmosphere of the Parken stadium could work in Denmark’s favor.

“We are facing the European champions, they have hardly lost a game recently. This is an exciting task. There will be times when we can put pressure on them, but with the quality they have, there will be others that we have to defend ourselves. I tried to find a balance“, he said in reference to the call.

Riemer emphasized that for his team, which plays against Serbia, being second in the group is a “finally” and that’s why he didn’t include new features in the list. “With these two games, it’s not about experimenting, a great job has been done and now we have the final. My job is to keep doing what I’m doingthis is no time for revolutions. But we can make some minor adjustments,” he said.

Riemer, until recently technician of Anderlecht Belgian, was named the new coach on October 24. Thus the Danish Federation (DBU) ended the temporary situation that arose after the departure of Kasper Hjulmand at the end of the last Euro Cup, after four years in office.

Hjulmand’s assistant, Morten Wieghorsttemporarily took over the position, but was unable to serve as coach in any game due to lack of stress, so another member of the coaching staff, Lars Knudsen, coached the team in four games in that competition. Both Knudsen and Wieghorst, in addition to former player Daniel Agger, will now be Riemer’s assistants.