On 3 June, at the Maurice Dufrasne Stadium in Liege, the DR Congo national team will play Denmark. The game kicks off at 14:00 EDT / 11:00 PDT.
At the World Cup, most people had primarily expected to see Denmark rather than DR Congo, but the opposite happened.
Failure to qualify for the World Cup did not lead to the resignation of Brian Riemer, who was appointed Denmark head coach in October 2024, which means the gradual integration of young players into the team will continue. DR Congo, meanwhile, should test their core group against such strong opponents.
Because the game will be played on neutral ground, the teams can be rotated however you like along the home-away axis in the official protocols, but DR Congo players will feel almost at home because Belgium has many people from its former colony. Sebastien Desabre's team is built around players who play in the French and English leagues. It is not entirely clear whether the coach will decide to field his strongest side in this match or save them for the final game before the World Cup against Chile. Some of the leaders will definitely feature.
Brian Riemer uses several systems, but his main one remains 4-2-3-1, the most balanced of them all. Previously, the red-and-whites had played an African national team only once — against Tunisia in the group stage of the 2022 World Cup (0:0). Several long-serving team leaders have decided to end their international careers or retire from football altogether, as Kasper Schmeichel has done, but they were already virtually absent from the squad for the decisive qualifying match against Czech Republic. Only Christian Norgaard came on half an hour before the end of normal time. Napoli forward Rasmus Hojlund could well appear up front, as he has in most matches.
DR Congo seem to experts and bookmakers to be clear outsiders, but they were not especially highly rated even on the African continent. They have assembled all their strongest players, while Denmark are without a sufficient number of experienced players. The nominal hosts should definitely not be written off, so we choose a positive handicap on DR Congo.
| Bookie | 1 | X | 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
