UPDATE 2-Soccer-Denmark sink Portugal after late goal flurry

Thu Sep 11, 2008 1:06am BST
 
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(adds Danish coach quotes, Jacobsen injury)

By Carlos Pontes

LISBON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Daniel Jensen's stoppage-time winner gave Denmark a 3-2 victory over Portugal in a World Cup Group One qualifier on Wednesday which featured four goals in the closing seven minutes.

Portugal winger Nani opened the scoring after 42 minutes when he tapped home Hugo Almeida's excellent cross from the left and the hosts dominated the match until the late flurry of goals.

Denmark levelled through Nicklas Bendtner's header in the 83rd minute before Portugal re-took the lead three minutes later with a Deco penalty.

Denmark equalised again in the 89th minute with a Christian Poulsen header after Portugal keeper Quim failed to clear his area following a corner.

The Danes then grabbed all three points with Jensen's deflected shot two minutes into stoppage time.

"It's bad to lose this way, we had the game under control, but in football a team that doesn't score sometimes gets punished unfairly. We could have won but although we tried to keep Denmark under pressure, they managed to get things their way and we have to accept it," Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz told reporters.

It was the first time in 12 years that Portugal had lost a World Cup qualifying match, the last defeat coming in October 1996 in Ukraine.  Continued...

 

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