While the Wolves man grabbed his first international goal five minutes from full-time to cancel out Martin Braithwaite’s breakthrough 12 minutes earlier, the 1-1 draw sent Denmark into the finals at Ireland’s expense.

“Mixed emotions,” said McCarthy afterwards.

“Will it be a tale of goalkeepers?” George Hamilton intones portentously as the camera zooms in on Kasper Schmeichel. “Will it be a tale of goalscorers?”

Larry Ryan picks out five things we probably knew already from Ireland's draw with Denmark...

Paul Dowling assesses the performances of Ireland's players in the 1-1 draw with Denmark.

Matt Doherty’s late header was not enough to send the Republic of Ireland to the Euro 2020 finals as they came up just short in a tense encounter with old foes Denmark.

And so it all comes down to this. Ninety minutes that will decide qualification for the Euro 2020 finals.

Back in 1904, Arnold Peter Møller and his father founded what would later become Denmark’s biggest company and the largest container ship and supply vessel operator in the world.

Well, yes, and here we go again… But before we get into ‘Dane-ja vu’ or even ‘Oh, Dane-ger here’ territory, a word of two about the headlines that got away on account of Troy Parrott being so inconsiderate towards us hacks as to refrain from crowning his senior debut, at the ridiculously tender age of 17, with the goal or two or even three which we were all demanding.

Yesterday, Denmark celebrated the two-year anniversary of the 5-1 win in Dublin which secured qualification to the World Cup in Russia.

Rather than feeling bullish about another Dublin cake-walk next month, Denmark manager Åge Hareide is convinced Mick McCarthy will have Ireland better prepared than his predecessor Martin O’Neill.

After the 2-0 defeat to Switzerland in Geneva on Tuesday, Mick McCarthy has no hesitation in saying that Ireland were beaten by “the best team in the group”.

There was no quick getaway from their Swiss mission for the Republic of Ireland players.

Prior to Geneva, when did Ireland last start with 3-5-2?

Ger McCarthy on the lessons learned from Ireland's 2-0 loss to Switzerland at the Stade de Genève.

It’s hard to see how taking on Switzerland on their own patch could be anything other than a seriously daunting experience for Ireland but Enda Stevens will be only too happy to be back in the thick of things in Geneva tonight.

It’s not ‘do or die’ for Ireland tomorrow tonight – more like a case of ‘do but not die’.

As far as Mick McCarthy is concerned, the good news is that Georgia held Denmark 0-0. And the bad news is that Georgia held Denmark 0-0.

THE Danish government has decided to ban new fish farms at sea, or expansion of existing ones. The move is being watched by the industry here and by people who continue to oppose such farms planned for places such as Bantry Bay, Co Cork.

Salmon farming is a multi-billion industry and the sector has assumed the commercial and political clout that success makes possible.

Donald Trump reportedly wants to buy Greenland, the world’s biggest island.

So you thought Scandi chic was a modern trend? Kya deLongchamps introduces the original 18th-century version

In penning this column over many years, there has been quite a bit of reaction to certain issues raised but nothing to come near the response to last week’s piece on cycling in Copenhagen.

En route to an audience with Robbie Keane in Crumlin the other day, the journey down the Long Mile Road and past the Half-Way House offered a handy metaphor for where Ireland are at in their Euro 2020 campaign.

International football doesn’t ravage the energy reserves as relentlessly as the domestic English game in which Mick McCarthy was so long immersed but the Republic of Ireland manager is clearly looking forward to the summer recess.

At the half-way point in Euro 2020 qualifying, the good news for Ireland is that they sit atop the group table with a healthy haul of ten points from four games.

Denmark captain Simon Kjaer says they won’t wallow in despair at dropping points against Ireland on Friday night because they’re confident of winning the return Euro qualifier.

It was just of 5pm local time, four hours before kick-off, when an open-topped party bus stopped in traffic outside the Ireland team’s hotel in the centre of Copenhagen.

The last time Shane Duffy scored against Denmark with a header…well, do we really need to go through all that again?

Ireland being paired once again with Denmark and Georgia in the Euro 2020 draw in Dublin in December might have induced an unwelcome sense of déjà vu but it also made Group D into something akin to a useful laboratory experiment, offering a convenient then-and-now contrast to help us better determine the state of the Irish game in 2019.

Never a man to turn a drama into a crisis, Seamus Coleman tried to turn the temperature down on the latest meeting of old foes in Copenhagen.

When, after just six minutes of the second leg of the World Cup play-off against Denmark in 2017, Shane Duffy used his height and his head to put Ireland a goal to the good, the eruption of joy on the pitch and in the stands of the Aviva Stadium suggested that what we’d just witnessed was one of those defining moments which the Derryman might find hard to top for the rest of his career.

Adventurer Jamie Young has traversed the Atlantic twice as a solo sailor, kayaked around Cape Horn, raced around Rockall and taken a kite buggy to the Antarctic.

I have mighty good news for all of you this week.

Ireland might be top of Group D but Mick McCarthy is keeping his feet firmly on the ground.

John Fallon Denmark’s Henrik Dalsgaard is expecting Mick McCarthy to enrich Copenhagen with an entertaining Ireland side for their crunch Euro meeting in June.

Denmark manager Age Hareide admitted he went from hell to heaven as his team mounted a staggering late comeback in Basel to extract a point off Switzerland in the battle of Group D’s top seeds.

Two cuts sent to visual Qualification for Euro 2020 gets under way this evening, and the big boys have been limbering up in their own inimitable way.

It’s not just the political upheaval and economic uncertainty, it’s the lingering fear that we weren’t good enough for the British, says Stephen Lynam.

Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane have parted company with the FAI by mutual agreement.

Harry Arter never wanted, nor asked for, an apology from Roy Keane over the bust-up that prompted the Cardiff City midfielder to step away from the international game last month.

Almost five years into his reign, at a cost of €10m in wages, Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane are, apparently, laying building blocks for the Ireland squad.

Denmark boss Age Hareide has warned the Republic of Ireland not to be fooled by Christian Eriksen’s absence as they attempt to rekindle their Nations League campaign.

Where to begin with an overview of the state of the Danish national team before the Nations League match in Dublin today?