Considering that they had lost their previous two World Cup qualifying fixtures – including a 3-0 home defeat to tonight’s opponents – Greece looked strong in the opening stages, especially through lively youngster Konstantinos Karetsas.
Their promise was mainly on the counter, though, and all it took to see them go behind was a loose Christos Zafeiris backpass, which was pounced on by Rasmus Hojlund and touched first time past a helpless Odysseas Vlachodimos.
Hojlund’s sixth strike in four matches for club and country clearly instilled further confidence in his side, who then went close through Andreas Christensen’s long-range effort. The pressure continued, and the hosts exploded back into action five minutes from HT, netting twice in just 90 seconds to put the result beyond reasonable doubt.
Joachim Andersen nipped into the six-yard box to nod Mikkel Damsgaard’s corner kick past Vlachodimos, before another mistake at the back allowed Victor Froholdt to pass across the box to Damsgaard, who swept in one of his own.
With Scotland hot on their tails, Denmark half-heartedly looked to improve their goal difference further, but Greece finally threw caution to the wind and hit one back just after the hour mark.
Fotis Ioannidis drove into the Denmark box and laid it off to Christos Tzolis, who coolly sidefooted into the near top corner. Giannis Konstantelias then saw his effort tipped over by Kasper Schmeichel, before Vangelis Pavlidis’ shot was remarkably kept from going over the line by a combination of Christensen and Andersen.
For a moment, it had looked like Greece might still be in with a chance, but Denmark steadied the ship and extinguished any faint glimmer of hope remaining. With the Danes ending the international window level with Scotland on 10 points – albeit with far superior goal difference – it’s still all to play for in Group C, and fans of both sides will anxiously await their H2H in November.
Still, they are both now guaranteed at least a play-off place, which is more than can be said for Ivan Jovanović’s Greece, who will have to wait at least another four years for a first World Cup appearance since 2014.