an early lead with a volley into the roof of France's net from a Flemming Povlsen header. After half-time, Schmeichel made saves from Didier Deschamps, Eric Cantona and a long-distance strike by substitute Luis Fernandez. Just after the hour-mark, France equalised when Jean-Pierre Papin's curling strike beat Schmeichel and flew into the top corner of Denmark's goal. Deschamps then shot wide before Povlsen's cross found Lars Elstrup who tapped the ball into the France goal to restore Denmark's lead; the match ended 2–1. Ending the group stage as runners-up, Denmark faced group 2 winners, the Netherlands in the semi-final, played on 22 June 1992 at the Nya Ullevi in Gothenburg. Five minutes into the match, Denmark's Brian Laudrup dispossessed Frank de Boer and crossed the ball: Hans van Breukelen, the Netherlands goalkeeper missed his punch, allowing Larsen to score at the far post with a header. Midway through the half, Frank Rijkaard headed a cross from Rob Witschge to Dennis Bergkamp who beat Schmeichel with a shot that bounced just in front of him, to level the score. In the 32nd minute, Denmark retook the lead when Larsen scored his second, converting when Ronald Koeman cleared a Laudrup header. The second half saw further Denmark attempts to score before losing Henrik Andersen with a serious knee injury. The Netherlands increased the pressure and with five minutes of the match remaining scored the equaliser as Rijkaard headed in from a Witschge cross. The match ended 2–2 and went into extra time where despite chances for the Netherlands, the score remained unchanged and a penalty shoot-out was required. Koeman and Larsen scored either side's opening penalties before Marco van Basten's strike was saved by Schmeichel. All the remaining penalties were scored, with Denmark's Christofte despatching the winning strike, with his side progressing to the final 5–4 in the shoot-out. Olsen later suggested that in his opinion, the semi-final was "the best match a Danish team has ever played." Germany Germany were in UEFA Euro 1992 Group 2 where they faced the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Netherlands and Scotland. In their first group match, Germany played against the CIS at Idrottsparken in Norrköping on 12 June 1992. The game commenced with the CIS adopting a highly defensive formation restricting Germany to a shot from Guido Buchwald, a header from Rudi Völler and a strike from Thomas Häßler, all of which were