Ryan Giggs admitted his young side were out on their feet as Christian Eriksen showed no mercy in condemning Wales to defeat. Denmark may have had only 72 hours together after their bitter fallout with their FA but the Tottenham midfielder needed only 90 minutes to outshine Gareth Bale.

Wales’s 4-1 destruction of Ireland on Thursday seemed like a distant memory as they felt the pace against their fresher opponents. A first-half goal against the run of play continued Eriksen’s hot streak for his country before he fired home from the spot to take his scoring run to 15 goals in his last 18 matches.

“Physically, with the quick turnaround, we found it difficult against a very good team,” said Giggs. “For the young players it’s a learning curve. I tried to freshen it up after the highs of Thursday but it’s not easy. We got plaudits on Thursday but now we have to answer questions. When you give Eriksen that space on the edge of the box you are in trouble. We kept him quiet but he has quality and makes the right decision and the right execution.”

The Nations League chaos looked to have subsided after Denmark’s players agreed a temporary agreement with the Danish Football Association after a team made of internet football freestylers, lower league players and futsalers went down fighting in a 3-0 defeat in Slovakia last Wednesday.

But Wales were hit by travel chaos and arrived in Denmark’s second city only after midnight on Saturday as their plane had been grounded due to technical problems.

They showed no signs of fatigue in the opening stages at Ceres Park, however. And the new aggressive pressing approach almost paid dividends for them after Aaron Ramsey won possession in midfield and released Bale to run at the defence.

Denmark’s captain, Simon Kjaer, was immediately back-pedalling before giving Bale enough space to send a shot past Kasper Schmeichel but just past a post as well.

Ryan Giggs puts his faith in youth as Wales bask in glory of Irish triumph Read more

But Giggs’ men were undone by their opposition’s main man Eriksen after 32 minutes. Lasse Schöne sprayed a searching ball out to the right-back Henrik Dalsgaard, who cut a square pass across the edge of the box for the Spurs man to hit a low shot across goal and into the back of the net via an upright.

It put the Danes in a commanding position and it could have got worse for Wales had it not been for Wayne Hennessey in goal. The ball sat up for the winger Pione Sisto to fire a rising drive towards goal but the Crystal Palace No 1 dived full stretch to paw it away.

A Bale free-kick took Kjaer off his feet after half-time but Wales were no closer to testing Schmeichel. And tiredness looked to be creeping in when Chris Mepham was dispossessed in his own box by Martin Braithwaite, who then found the side-netting with his shot.

But the pressure finally told as Denmark made the most of a dubious penalty decision to double their lead. Ethan Ampadu jumped to block a Viktor Fischer cross but was adjudged to have made a deliberate movement with a hand towards the ball despite being only three yards away. The call may have been disputed but there was no indecision from Eriksen, who fired his penalty past Hennessey to continue his remarkable run.

Braithwaite almost made it three as hope fizzled out for Wales but Hennessey again proved their saviour at the back as Denmark coasted to victory.

“No matter how the week developed this is what we wanted,” said Eriksen, the man of the match. “We wanted to play some football, to win and to get a good start in this competition. It was a good start and a very good finish to a weird week.

“You could see Wales were tired after Thursday and they gave us a lot of space to play in midfield. We’re good at using it but we got lucky with the penalty. We had chances to do more, but we did well.”