Denmark's Schmeichel bemoans Portugal's 'lucky' winning goal

Jun 13, 2012 10:28:00 PM

Silvestre Varela needed two bites at the cherry before he fired the ball past Stephan Andersen to secure three points for the Seleccao and leave Morten Olsen's men heartbroken

EXCLUSIVE

Clark Whitney
In Lviv

Kasper Schmeichel struggled to contain his frustration after seeing Denmark succumb to a "lucky" late goal in their 3-2 defeat by Euro 2012 Group B rivals Portugal on Wednesday evening.

Morten Olsen's men, who upset the Netherlands in their tournament opener, found themselves 2-0 down after just 36 minutes of play in Lviv following a header from Pepe and a neat finish from Helder Postiga, but Nicklas Bendtner headed them right back into the game just before the interval and the appeared to have earned his country a precious point when he repeated the feat late on.

However, Denmark were left crestfallen when Silvestre Varela fired home at the second attempt with just three minutes of normal time remaining to nick it for the Portuguese.

"I think the winning goal was a little bit lucky in the sense that he miskicked it and still had time to finish, but it was a good finish and it's a shame that we couldn't hold on," Schmeichel, an unused substitute, told Goal.com.

"I thought we played ok. Obviously, conceding from a corner is never what you want when you're defending, but it was a good header from Pepe.

"But we showed a lot of character. Nicklas scored two great goals and that's the sign of a top striker."

Denmark must now strive to pick up something from their final Group B outing, against Germany, if they are secure a place in the last eight. The match will take kick-off from Lviv on Sunday at 20:45CET.

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