Denmark may have got the three points that put their World Cup campaign back on track, but defender Daniel Agger felt that was one of the few positives his side could take from their 2-1 victory over Cameroon.
With both sides having lost their opening Group E games, Denmark and Cameroon each knew they needed to get something out of Saturday night’s clash in Pretoria.
It was Cameroon who made the first breakthrough, captain Samuel Eto’o putting his side ahead in the 10th minute following a mistake by Christian Poulsen, but Denmark bounced back to take the victory thanks to goals in either half by Nicklas Bendtner and Dennis Rommedahl.
However, Denmark rode their luck on occasion as Cameroon pushed forward at every opportunity in a bid to avoid becoming the first team to be knocked out of the tournament, while at the other end Morten Olsen’s side missed a couple of great chances to wrap the game up in the second half.
Agger, who was named man of the match, admitted it was far from the perfect display from Denmark but pointed out that getting the win was the main thing.
In a frank and honest assessment of his side’s showing, Agger said: “Particularly in the first half, it was one of the worst performances we’ve given in a long time, our transitions were poor, we didn’t cover well.
“If they’d been a bit more clinical they would have scored more goals and we would have been out of it in the first half, but to our credit we do fight.
“We tried to stand together and we scored two goals. We had other opportunities as well, but sometimes it became a bit of a kick-and-rush game, going up and down and up and down, and that’s not really the way we want to play.
“But we’ve got three points, that’s the most positive thing I can say.”
Echoing the thoughts of his coach, who was not overly impressed by his team’s display either, the Liverpool centre-back added: “We know it was a really bad game, especially in the first half, we didn’t play like a team.
“We didn’t play like we have to if we want to progress. Clearly it wasn’t good enough but if you can still win playing like that it’s a positive.
“We are a team, we stand together as a team, and to our credit we did come back in the match.
“It didn’t look too good at one point, but the positive thing is that we did fight back.”
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