Denmark boss Morten Olsen believes their friendly against Brazil on Saturday is an ideal warm-up match for Euro 2012.
The Scandinavian nation take on Mano Menezes’ men at the Imtech Arena in Hamburg, before facing Australia next weekend.
Olsen
feels that the South American powerhouse will test his side, but will
give him an idea of the Danes’ standing going into the tournament in
Ukraine and Poland.
“We are happy to play them. We picked them
specifically ahead of Euro. They are technically skilled and we want to
measure ourselves against them,” he said.
“It is important to draw conclusions from the game and erase any mistakes that were made.”
Denmark
have been drawn in Group B alongside Netherlands, Germany and Portugal,
but despite a difficult pool Olsen is still confident of recreating the
unexpected success of the 1992 tournament.
“We are not favourites but of course we have a chance. The others have to advance, we want to advance,” he said.
Meanwhile, Menezes said the selection of young players in his squad was made with the 2014 World Cup in mind.
A
number of senior players have not travelled for the game, with Menezes
claiming that the Olympics and World Cup in his homeland in two years’
time played a major part in his selection process.
“It is a young
team, younger than Denmark. The goal is the Olympic team. We are
renovating the team and need young players for 2014,” he said.
Brazil
go to North America after the game, with a fixture against the United
States on May 30 before taking on Mexico and Argentina on June 3 and 9
respectively.
The former Corinthians boss has vowed to pick a
stronger contingent for those games, and will potentially reintroduce
the likes of Neymar to the group.
“The team in the U.S will be stronger. And for the last two games I have more time to train with the players,” he said.
