Bullyboy tactics backfire on Bulgarians

Bulgaria 0 Denmark 2

The Bulgarians, after shipping in five goals to Sweden in their opening game, set out seemingly intent to bully their way to victory.

But their tactics backfired as Denmark deservedly claimed the win after a first-half strike from Jon Dahl Tomasson and a late effort from Jesper Gronkjaer.

Bulgaria's frustration became evident as captain Stilian Petrov was sent off amid a flurry of cards late on.

Five Bulgarians ended up in the book but Denmark were not totally blameless. Everton's Thomas Gravesen particularly gave as good as he got in a match which saw plenty of rough stuff.

Gravesen returned to the side from suspension in place of Christian Poulsen, the victim of the infamous Francesco Totti spitting in Denmark's draw with Italy on Monday.

But the match was as unpleasant as any seen in the tournament. The early exchanges were spiteful, nasty and never fully controlled by referee Lucilio Batista.

Gravesen was at the heart of all the mayhem along with Kaiserslautern's tall midfielder Marian Hristov.

The unlucky innocent victim though was Dennis Rommedahl who got himself battered once too often and had to limp away after just 23 minutes to allow Gronkjaer into the fray.

The Portuguese official booked Rosen Kirilov and former Manchester City full-back Niclas Jensen, but there could have been many more.

With a minute to go to the break, Gravesen's ball set up Laursen for a touch across goal that Tomasson rolled into the net.

In injury time Gronkjaer made sure with a goal his industry and skill had deserved.

Bulgarian coach Plamen Markov whose side have lost both matches, received nine cards and are now out of the tournament was furious with referee Lucilio Batista for not punishing a late foul on Zdravko Lazarov that could have led to an equaliser.

He said: "In both our matches the referee has been against us. He could have given us a penalty against Sweden before they scored, and again this time he was against us.

"The way we played in the second half we did not deserve to lose to such a result, but we knew the Danes were a class side and they showed that in long spells during the game.

"I was not happy with the attitude of my players at the end, the captain getting sent off. It was not a professional thing to do."

BULGARIA: Zdravkov, Ivanov (Lazarov 51), Kirilov, Stoyanov, Ivaylo Petkov (Zagorchich 40), Peev, Stilian Petrov, Hristov, Martin Petrov, Berbatov, Yankovich.

DENMARK: Sorensen, Helveg, Laursen, Henriksen, Niclas Jensen, Gravesen, Tomasson, Daniel Jensen, Jorgensen (Claus Jensen 72), Sand, Rommedahl (Gronkjaer 23).

Ref: Lucilio Cardoso Cortez Batista (Portugal).