So, we’ve made it to day two and into Group B, and this is by no means an ordinary group. Yes, it’s the infamous ‘group of death’, hotly contested this time round by Portugal, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. Holland took on Denmark in the opening fixture of this fearsome qualifying stage, and in no time at all, viewers knew that the so far consistent calibre of football was set to continue. The Dutch side were quick to set the bar very high, with incredible passages of fancy, flowing football and a string of opportunities to take an early lead through a misfired header from Wesley Sneijder and a moment of indecision from Arjen Robben resulting in a disappointing lack of shot.

But it was completely against the run of play that a lead was taken, and it was taken by Denmark through Michael Krohn-Dehli, weaving his way past orange shirts in the box to finish by crisply slotting the ball home through the legs of Maarten Stekelenburg. The underdogs had the advantage which unsettled the Dutch, who had had almost three quarters of the possession. Their frustration showed, with another effort from Robben hitting the post this time after failing to capitalise on a horrific error from Danish goalkeeper Stephan Andersen, and dreadful control from Robin van Persie left his composure awry. Denmark themselves had opportunities to go in two up at the break, but they too were not met with enough guile to create a goal, most notably a lack of communication between Krohn-Dehli and Niki Zimling which saw a good chance go amiss.

The story of the second half started much the same; Holland had the large majority of the possession and threatening play, but it was clear that their prized hit-man Robin van Persie was experiencing difficulty in finding the net, or the ball for that matter. An embarrassing air shot left van Persie in a heap looking bewildered, something quite out of character for a player who has been so talismanic for club and country of late. This scoring drought was to last the full 90 minutes as Bert van Marwijk rolled the dice and brought on Klaas-Jan Huntelaar in the hope that he could salvage a point, but he was denied at close range by an outstretched Andersen.

Credit must be paid to the Danes, their tight defensive partnership of Daniel Agger and Simon Kjaer shone throughout and as a unit Denmark were able to keep the Netherlands at bay (albeit illegally in the case of Lars Jacobsen). The statistics were damning for Holland; of their 29 attempts, only 9 were on target, compared to only one put wide by Denmark. This group of death may have just been made considerably deadlier today by this shock result, but if you saw the game you can hardly deny that Holland did look quite ordinary for a team initially tipped to perform well at the Euros, and depending on the result between Germany and Portugal later, there could be even more surprises on the cards.