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Today the Danish Football Association confirmed that former national team manager Richard Møller-Nielsen has passed away aged 76.

Although, Møller-Nielsen won domestic trophies as a club manager, he will forever be associated with Denmark's fairytale triumph at Euro 1992 where a team without Michael Laudrup went on to beat Germany in a shock final win, despite only being included in the final tournament because of Yugoslavia's disqualification.

To mark Møller-Nielsen's passing, we spoke to Danish sports journalist Jan Kjeldtoft of Ekstra Bladet who reminisced about Denmark's greatest footballing moment.

"What happened was like a fairytale. It could have been written by Hans Christian Andersen and the whole nation that summer was in a state of disbelief. It changed the way Danes look upon themselves as a nation. It wasn't just about football. It was more than that," said Kjeldtoft of the achievements of Møller-Nielsen and his band of players.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and Kjeldtoft thinks Michael Laudrup's absence was a blessing in disguise. Laudrup had left the national team before the Euros because of the style of play.

"We probably wouldn't have won the title with him in the team. Without any doubt, he was one of the best players in the world at that time. But the way the team played football was very much different. It was defending and counterattacking. With him among the eleven, I think we would have lost a lot of tackles and maybe we wouldn't have won. So it's a strange story because you can have the best player in the world and become the best team without him."  

Image: Mikael Laudrup of Denmark against Ireland in 1985 ©INPHO/Billy Stickland