Schmeichel (2025)

[bunniefuu]

(waves lapping)

(soft guitar music)

PETER SCHMEICHEL: All of my life, since I

was a kid,

I wanted to be the hero in the game.

Unbeatable.

Looking back now,

there was nothing that could stop me.

(crowd cheering)

My name is Peter Bolesaw Schmeichel.

At least that's how my mother

pronounces our surname.

I think I'm more famous

for being called...

COMMENTATOR: Schmeichel. Fantastic save

for the world's number one.

PETER: I wanted to enforce control

on everything, all the time.

I had to be like that.

GARY NEVILLE: Brutal. Passionate.

Mistakes couldn't happen.

LAURA VON LINDHOLM: He has this attitude

and has this strong presence,

which can be a little bit intimidating.

COMMENTATOR: Oh, an astonishing save.

He was the greatest goalkeeper

we ever had.

When you've got a goalkeeper like that,

you don't need defenders.

(laughs)

When a striker is in front of him,

it's not like he's in front of

somebody else.

He created something,

gave something to football.

COMMENTATOR: Fantastic stop

by Peter Schmeichel.

JONATHAN NORTHCROFT: He reinvented

the position.

He's fundamental to the game.

-COMMENTATOR: Oh.

INTERVIEWER: Is Peter Schmeichel like God

then, in Denmark?

Yeah, he is God. There's only

one God, that's Peter.

JOHN JENSEN: Peter was one of a kind.

But his weakness was his temper.

CECILIE SCHMEICHEL: My dad was

the footballer.

That was our whole identity.

We were not meant to see him be weak.

That was not him.

KASPER SCHMEICHEL: Goalkeeper is the

position of ultimate responsibility.

If you haven't stood there,

you don't know that feeling.

You have to be bulletproof.

PETER: There was a realisation about

who I was, who I am.

Life is understood backwards,

but it's lived forwards.

You have to live it.

(applause)

(dramatic music)

PETER: I'm born to a Danish mother

and a Polish father.

When I was a kid, if I was challenged,

I would take the challenge,

and I would show everybody

that I could do it,

and I would do it much better.

If somebody did something

that I hadn't done before,

it was the utmost importance to me

to do that even better.

If somebody jumped two metres,

I had to jump three metres.

If we were climbing somewhere,

he was climbing higher.

He was funny.

He was full of life.

He could not sit on a chair.

I mean, he was all over the place.

I did some really crazy things.

But I wanted to do stuff that was

impossible to other kids.

To be on top.

(ship horn blares)

I grew up with this narrative in my

home, 'You have to be the best.'

And it came from my father.

I think it was to protect himself.

He had lost his father on the first day

of the Second World w*r,

the invasion of Poland.

He died in that first day,

and then had his mother taken away

when the w*r was over.

She was literally taken away

in front of four kids,

and they never saw her again.

She was put into a concentration camp,

and she died there.

Christ, to live with that...

and that gives me an understanding of

some of his behaviours at times.

He was carrying around demons

for most of his life.

(dramatic music)

Back in 1961, the way that my father

came to Denmark

was quite extraordinary.

My parents met in Poland,

my mother was on a cruise ship

that went to a small coastal town

called Sopot.

She loves theatre.

Somehow 'A Taste of Honey'

was on in Sopot,

and it's set in Salford, in Manchester,

and the main character is called Peter.

She sees this guy,

he's stood with tickets.

She goes up, persuades him to part

with one of those tickets.

That was my father.

He was a professional musician.

She stayed for six months,

and they decided to get married.

My mother was pregnant

with my big sister.

One day, and this is very typical

of my mother, she says,

"Okay, I'm going back to Denmark.

Find your own way there."

Of course, she could leave,

she had a visa.

But if you were a Polish citizen,

that was impossible at the time.

You couldn't leave any of

the Eastern Bloc countries.

The authorities said,

"Well, if you wanna leave,

you have to spy for us in Denmark."

And he refused. Absolutely refused.

Of course, once you applied,

you're kept under observation.

So, he had people on him

all the time, 24/7.

And eventually, he gave in.

He made a deal with the devil

and became a spy.

Once he came to Denmark, he then reported

himself to the authorities here,

and said, "This was the condition for

me to leave Poland."

They threw him in a cell.

Eventually, they said, "You're allowed

in, but you have to spy for us as well."

So, he became a double spy.

He would go to the Polish embassy

and be interrogated,

and he would go to

the Danish authorities,

and the same would happen there.

He felt the pressure.

He wanted to play music,

and he wanted to start his family,

and he just wanted normality.

I'm very impressed by what he's done,

I have to say that.

I'm always impressed with people who find

unbelievable strength

to get through life,

and create existence for themselves

and I think that he's a prime

example of that.

(dramatic music)

But...

he carried this incredible anger

for so many years, and...

it didn't take much for it

to come through.

MARGRETHE: He was good shouting.

I just remember that I said, when I

grow up, having kids,

"Don't shout at them, Margrethe.

Don't do that."

Because it's really...

it's really tough.

LAURA: His father didn't show

any emotions.

He was not caring and kind.

And that has affected Peter.

As a man, he is very...

I was thinking in the beginning

when I met him, it was like...

he was like, like this,

you know, very hard.

And that, of course, comes from

his father's history.

PETER: It's a strange thing to say,

but because of his being angry,

I stayed out of the house a lot.

That meant I was out playing football.

This is it, my first ever game

was from here.

Back then, we did play eleven-a-side,

so it would've been this size.

And I was probably that size.

I joined this training session,

and I was not really in control of

myself, the ball,

and what I did to the other players

around me. (laughs)

(laughs) The coach looked at me

and he said,

"Why don't you try going in goal?"

It worked for me, and I was in goal

ever since.

KASPER: Goalkeeping is special.

Incredible highs, and the incredible

lows that football brings you.

As a keeper, you're responsible for both.

PETER: I love the whole idea about

just being the very, very last hope.

I got picked for the school team.

The teacher, he said, "You have

a very, very big talent,

and I think that one day you will play

for Denmark."

Okay. You have a talent.

Talent is never enough.

You have to work really hard.

I did.

I have to bring my mother into this.

Her job was tough.

She was a nurse, looking after children

in the cancer ward.

She's been the constant,

the rock in my life.

There's a lot of her that I've inherited.

That discipline, the tough mentality,

that was all part of my education.

From the very, very beginning,

I had this feeling of superiority.

No one could beat me.

I wanted to play for Denmark.

(dramatic music)

I also started to dream about

playing for Manchester United.

That was my dream.

(crowd cheering)

Everybody else was supporting Liverpool,

Bayern Munich, Real Madrid.

For me, it was Man United.

It's weird.

Weird that you don't know why,

but I don't.

I was nine when I said I wanted to

play for Man United.

A lot of kids say, "I wanna play for

Manchester United",

but how many end up doing it?

It was something I was dreaming

about every day.

Every single day.

(light piano music)

But there's no doubt about what

my father wanted me to do.

My father wrote this.

(dramatic piano music)

I haven't played this since I was a kid.

Can't remember.

Can't remember. He wrote that.

The only thing that I've got from him,

that he did himself.

Of course, a dad is a really, really

important person in your life.

I was the only son.

Sons are supposed to walk

in their father's footsteps.

PETER: It took years and years

and years for my family to accept

that this is what I was gonna do,

and there was nothing that they could

do to stop me.

(high tempo music)

When I was 19, I signed semi-pros

with a club called Hvidovre.

PETER: At the time, I was being viewed

as one of the greatest talents

in Denmark.

But at this point, I'm semi-professional.

I mean, I couldn't afford to live

if I didn't work,

so, I had a variety of different jobs.

It was kind of like a double life.

Kasper was born on November 5th, 1986,

which for me was a remarkable day.

I became a father, which was, you know,

something I really, really wanted.

And I had just signed with Brondby,

the first club ever in Denmark

to go full-time.

I learned that day that my first game

for Brondby as a full-time professional

would be a quarter-final

in the Champions League.

So, that was a big thing.

I was really, really happy

to become a dad,

but I never felt that it was something

that changed my cause or my thinking.

LAURA: Peter was super young.

I mean, you should see one

of the pictures

where he's holding Kasper,

it's like (laughs) a child.

You know, he looks like a child.

And he probably also is a child

emotionally, in many ways,

you know, at least a very young man.

And then he goes into this career

that is so consuming.

All your mental energy goes into that.

And maybe it's not so easy to be

a father or a husband,

I mean, because you're so consumed

with this.

PETER: So, I met my ex-wife very young.

All of a sudden, we have a kid,

we have an apartment,

we've got obligations.

But...

my focus was somewhere else, you know.

If you become a dad at 22, and then

again at 25, it's a bit early,

especially for somebody who was

in a hurry

to create a career in a sport that

has an end date.

But there isn't a formula of what

a good parent is.

Yes, at times I would have been

away a lot,

at times I would have been under

pressure a lot,

and that would have, you know, some

kind of reflection on our family life.

I don't really have any regrets

on my ability to be a parent.

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.

PETER: I played in a team, but I also

played an individual sport,

'cause my position is so different.

KASPER: Goalkeeping is a sport within the

sport.

We wear a different kit,

we have our own coach.

The goalkeeper is the position of

ultimate responsibility.

PETER: It's very much a reactive

position.

There's no control.

So, how do you get control?

I tried to impose myself.

When a striker would look up,

I would already be in position.

And with that, I was just working

on angles.

If I had a striker coming at me this

way, I would just be here.

He wouldn't be able to see the goal.

And that meant that, yeah, now you're

trying to move and be clever, right.

I would just move with you. (laughs)

Day after day after day,

it became instinct, repetition.

My performances got better, and it

gave me so much more confidence.

I even became the penalty taker,

and in one game I scored two.

I remember as a kid going to see Brondby

playing in the late '80s,

and there was such an excitement

around Peter Schmeichel and that team.

People were climbing the floodlights to

get in,

to have a view of this very enigmatic,

very charismatic,

very different type of keeper.

He came into the club,

he filled out the room,

even when he was very young.

This is a character with presence,

with attitude.

Everything should be perfect, and he

demanded a lot from his teammates.

Sometimes you'd turn around and said,

"Shut the f*ck up, Peter,

for f*ck's sake."

But we knew sometimes it helped us

as well,

because if you're not 100 percent

concentrated,

you knew that Peter would come after you.

That huge winning mentality was one

of the key factors for Brondby,

and Peter demanded that.

LARS ERIKSEN: He took over the

Danish goalkeeping position in '88.

Schmeichel stood out.

I mean, he was the one that led from

the front, or rather from the back.

I was working at Frederiksberg Hospital,

and I just heard that on the television,

that he has a debut.

"That's my brother!"

I was so proud.

PETER: I loved the Danish team,

and it was a big, big thing for me

when I got involved.

Brian Laudrup always used to say that

I fell in the pot of self-belief

when I was a kid.

I never doubted myself.

(pop music playing)

PETER: I had four very, very good

and meaningful years with Brondby.

Success breeds confidence,

and more success.

But it wasn't enough.

JOHN JENSEN: The bar was not so

high when he came to Brondby.

His bar was much higher,

and the bar should be on the highest

level you could ever see.

He wants to learn more,

he wants to achieve more,

and he wants to play for the biggest

club in the world.

SIR ALEX: I was cautious about bringing

a Danish goalkeeper in the English game,

because it is tough, you know.

My first experience was actually

watching him in training with Brondby.

I hear this guy screaming

and shouting, bawling,

you know, this is, this is interesting.

And I watched him train

and he was fantastic.

He was a massive man.

You know, he's six foot four,

and his speed,

his speed was tremendous.

He stretched himself every time

someone came through.

The span, you know, he was like

an aeroplane.

You know, he's out there,

he's covering almost all the goal.

And then he starts coming out.

And I kept saying,

"God, he'll fill my goal.

They'll never get by him." (laughs)

He was a big lad, you know.

He eats too much. (laughs)

I couldn't believe his age

when they said he's 27.

I said, "27? Where has he been?"

Our goalkeeping coach

Alan Hodgkinson said,

"You need to sign him."

(poignant music)

PETER: All of my life, I dreamt

about this.

When I first arrived, I get into

the chairman's office,

never met him before.

He said, "You come with me",

and he took me to the museum.

He wanted to make sure that

I understood the responsibility

that I was taking, becoming

a Manchester United player.

I'm not just coming into a football club,

I'm coming into a place of history.

This is as special as I've dreamt about.

The definition of

Manchester United is romance.

It's a romance that is just rooted in

Matt Busby, the 'Busby Babes',

who were ready to dominate football

for a decade at least,

who then of course suffered

the tragedy in Munich in 1958,

and had to rebuild.

Became the first English team

to win the European Cup.

United's history is inextricable to that.

It's romance, it's regeneration.

That's what made so many people fall

in love with Manchester United.

But then the club can't live up to

its own past.

And at that point, it's a club chasing

past glories.

(dramatic music)

PETER: My very, very first day at

Manchester United,

you don't know where to look,

you don't know who to talk to,

you don't know what to do, really.

They're walking in one after one.

I'm like, "My God, it's Mark Hughes."

I mean, (gasps) Bryan Robson, one of

my favourite players ever,

and he's actually sat next to me.

I'm totally blown away.

When Peter walked into the building,

the first thing straight away

is you just go by the presence of him

and the size of him.

There's no doubt he's got a character

and a personality,

because he's a natural born winner.

My first training session, Brian Kidd,

the assistant manager, goes,

"Right, we'll do boxes.

Peter, you can go do some half-

volleys." And I'm like,

"What? No, I'm not. I'm in the boxes."

"Oh, no, no, no, no."

And they all go, "Oh, no, no, we can't

have goalkeepers in the boxes."

That's what I've always done, so I just

went and stood in the box.

And they're all, kind of, looking at each

other, saying,

"What's going on here?", you know.

Eventually, it was so embarrassing,

they had to start.

JONATHAN: He wanted to train

as an outfielder.

This is common stuff now,

but this was 1991,

and that was completely new to

British football,

that was completely new to the players

at Manchester United.

PETER: My philosophy was that you

were part of the team.

They need to be with you, they need to

know you, they need to trust you.

They've seen that I can stand up for

myself, I know what I'm doing.

He settled down great.

They knew then they had

a real goalkeeper.

KASPER: I picked up English quite fast.

We've never spoken English at home,

it's always been Danish,

we've always celebrated Danish

Christmas, had Danish traditions.

Manchester was where I grew up.

I loved being there, I really did.

PETER: I was next door to Steve and

Janet Bruce, which was fantastic,

because they were really helping us in

settling into the UK.

They had Amy and Alex, and that was

fun, and a lot of people are like,

"How is it having a famous dad?"

and where I'd be like, "Well, I've never

tried anything else.

He's just my dad, and it's just his

friend, Steve." (laughs)

'Cause they're normal people as well.

Our life was just football.

That was our whole identity.

My dad was very concentrated.

Everything was controlled.

KASPER: He was fiercely professional,

and took his role and his position

very seriously.

He was very strict with himself.

He had his routines, he had his ways

of doing things,

and there was no deviating from that.

Did he miss birthdays, did he miss

Christmases, New Years,

school plays and all? Yeah, he did.

But I wouldn't change it for anything.

Hi Pete.

I'll pick you up in about 10,

15 minutes, yeah?

Turn that camera off,

I'm tired of that camera.

We're looking for a team to go through

and play in the final.

Which actress played the female lead

in the 1980 film, 'The Blue Lagoon'?

Jane Fonda.

No, no, it was...

Brooke Shields.

Yes! 2-0!

-No, no, you didn't...

-Oi. You're joking.

Jane Fonda you said first,

then you changed [CROSS TALK].

No, no, no, I was just saying

Jane Fonda's cousin.

PETER: I grew up wanting to go

to England.

I felt an alliance with England

from way back.

I can't even remember when, but I

always felt that I belonged here.

When I finally made the move to

Man United,

I just absolutely felt that I'm at home.

(upbeat music)

(crowd cheering)

My first four games, I kept clean sheets.

I was so happy.

The media started to take note.

COMMENTATOR: Good save by Schmeichel.

COMMENTATOR: One of the saves of

the season from Peter Schmeichel.

GARY: I joined Manchester United around

that time.

Didn't really know much about him

before he came.

I'd never seen that very unique style

of goalkeeping.

It was bizarre.

You know, some of the things that he did

you'd not seen in English football

before.

Throws that would be 70 or 80 yards.

And at the time felt transformational,

it felt so different.

COMMENTATOR: It's come straight

from the goalkeeper.

PETER: But coming into what was

the old First Division,

I'm up against big, big, strong players

at a time where it was okay to

challenge the goalkeeper.

So, I had to learn how to deal with that.

SIR ALEX: How he dominated the penalty

box, that was his greatest strength.

Ball's getting tossed in, you' say,

"Where is he?" We depended on him.

He was a man mountain.

You feel like he's just gonna destroy

everything in his path.

They're all ducking, the centre backs

and the defenders.

They knew he wasn't gonna stop.

He was fantastic at that.

But then my teammates were really

taking the piss out of me.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just wait till you

play Fash."

And I'm thinking, "Fash?

Who the hell is this Fash?"

It turns out to be John Fashanu,

who played for Wimbledon.

He was a guy who was trying to

provoke you.

I'm going on the pitch, he's in my head.

He scored against me.

I let him get to me.

It annoyed me.

So, I decided, I'm gonna be like that.

I'm gonna be so arrogant that all of

these players, they will hate me.

I'm just gonna look through them.

I'm not even gonna acknowledge

their presence.

Get you out of your concentration,

make you angry.

I want them to think about me,

and not ever having a chance

to score a goal.

COMMENTATOR: Cantona.

Oh, look at that.

Good save, Schmeichel.

When a striker is in front of him,

it's not like being in front of

another goalkeeper.

He's very different.

He has something special.

COMMENTATOR: 16 clean sheets

in 29 matches

since the big Dane arrived

in this country.

COMMENTATOR: Settled in really

well at Old Trafford.

PETER: So, when he brought me in,

Sir Alex said that I was the final piece

in the jigsaw.

Now we have the team that can win

the league.

(crowd cheering)

COMMENTATOR: It's in there by Walters.

And now the title goes to Leeds

United, without any doubt at all.

It's all up for Manchester United.

PETER: Not winning the league is,

even to this day, incredibly

disappointing.

I will never get rid of that feeling.

(melancholic music)

We were so close, and we were so

much better than everybody else,

but for some reason, we just didn't

have enough.

Coming off that season,

I was mentally drained.

I was a little bit sick of football.

First of all, we didn't win

the championship.

Secondly, with Denmark, we didn't

qualify for the Euros 1992.

We lost out to Yugoslavia.

Of course, I was really disappointed,

but I just wanna not think

about football,

and I just want to have a break

and then recover,

and be ready for the next season.

(expl*si*n)

Concern is mounting that what used to

be Yugoslavia

is careering towards civil w*r.

PETER: The rumours started to surface

that the international community would

exclude Yugoslavia from everything.

They would be excluded from

the Euros if that happened,

and it would be the runners up

from that group

who would then take their place,

so we might be going to the Euros.

And I have to be completely honest,

I thought it was a terrible idea.

On the day that it was decided,

we actually went into camp straight away.

Our coach, Richard Mller Nielsen,

he was very clear about our

responsibilities here.

First and foremost, to the people of

Yugoslavia,

they have been penalised, so we can't

just go to the Euros and not try.

JOHN JENSEN: Peter and Richard

had a very good relationship.

Peter is demanding from his teammates,

and he could see that Richard

was working very hard.

He knew everything about

the opponent, and Peter liked that.

JONATHAN: Peter's a person of deep

loyalty, really,

who, if you do establish a bond with

him, it's deeply important to him.

In some ways, Mller Nielsen,

like Peter, was a bit of an outsider.

What Peter loved about Mller Nielsen

was he shared the same drive.

Where I was here, not wanting to

play there,

he got me over to here straight away.

Quiet before the storm.

Denmark-England play in Frankfurt,

where we are now.

The fact that my son is in it gives that

true emotional feeling.

Hopefully, hopefully, fingers crossed,

I get to say hello to Kasper, as well.

That would be very nice.

I have to do Talksport.

It's quite volatile, because

it's my native country

and my adopted country.

I don't wanna create stupid headlines.

It's not going too well,

because my brain is so tired.

They've got me in a good time.

They want me to say a stupid thing,

well, they've got me now.

-How are you?

-Thank you so much for coming.

These guys are following me.

You don't mind them filming you?

No, you're...f*cking hell, you love some

f*cking exposure, don't you?

(laughter)

-By you?

Would it be a shock result if Denmark

beat England today?

I think that...that's a big word, that,

because that's saying that Denmark's

not a very good team,

and I think we are a very good team.

I don't think it would be

a shock-shock result.

It will be a big result.

I was wondering if we could get

a photo next to the Hull flag.

-Is that okay?

-Alright.

-Guys, enjoy today, alright?

-Thank you.

No fighting.

It's a bit early to have a beer,

isn't it?

I guess if you've gotta go through ten

litres before the game,

you've gotta start early.

FANS: Come on England!

I do a lot of post-match interviews

with players, I never do this.

(laughter)

-Well played.

-There you go.

Oh.

There you go.

So, not disappointed at all?

I think always...there's always a tinge

of disappointment when we don't win.

INTERVIEWER: Peter, big night

for Denmark.

Did you surprise yourselves a bit here

in Malm?

No, I don't...I wouldn't say that

we surprised ourselves.

I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't

win the game in the end.

PETER: When we played that game

against England,

we were the better team.

We're looking at each other thinking,

"You know, we might just be able to do

something here."

JOHN JENSEN: We had been

together about six years.

We knew that we got a good team

and suddenly the belief was starting to

change a little bit.

The confidence starts to build up.

PETER: So, we go to Stockholm

and play the second game against Sweden,

and we create so many chances,

and we miss every single one of them.

They have one chance and score.

And I remember I was sat there

in the dressing room,

so disappointed and so angry,

and none of us felt like speaking to

the media.

JOHN JENSEN: We were under

pressure, the manager was under pressure,

so it was a very difficult situation

we were in.

But of course, if we beat France

in the last game,

we then would go the semi-final.

(dramatic music)

They were the pre-tournament

favourites, you know.

I remember before the game,

they come up to us and say,

"Go easy on us, 'cause we've gotta

play Holland next."

I just remember feeling, "My god,

we cannot let these guys win."

And from that moment on,

everybody believed that we could do

something here.

(cheering)

And you see Denmark become red and white,

you've got flags everywhere.

Everything was red and white.

It was unbelievable.

For me, playing for Denmark,

representing your country,

is just the pinnacle.

That was the ultimate.

When my father passed away,

and I, you know,

went through all his paper

and everything,

I actually realised that I was

born Polish,

that I was a Polish citizen until I think

about six years old,

when he became a Danish citizen.

Up until that point, I was actually

a Polish citizen.

It's weird, because I am half Polish.

I am, but I have no relationship to

Poland whatsoever.

Don't know any family members.

I knew a couple, they've all passed away.

But it's really weird, because you've...

there's half the family probably still

living on that I don't know about.

Are you a little Polish dog?

Are you?

You're German, aren't you?

Born in Germany.

And he's got a Dutch footballer's

name, the best Dutch footballer ever.

That's pretty funny, isn't it?

Holland and Germany,

in terms of football,

they just hate each other, don't they?

So, we named a German dog

after a Dutch superstar.

(laughs) Eh?

COMMENTATOR: So, Holland, the holders,

and the most successful nation

in the history

of the European Championships,

bid to join Germany in the final that

most of Europe wants to see.

PETER: The game we played against Holland

could have gone either way.

We were 1-0 up and 2-1 up.

The game finished 2-2.

I'm gonna face five penalties.

And I looked forward to it.

It's part of the game, and there's

no need for me not to enjoy that.

But as a goalkeeper in a penalty

shootout,

you have absolutely zero control.

So, how do you get control?

I said to myself, "Okay, on the first one

I'm gonna go there,

on the second one I'm gonna go there."

I mean, it was an instinct, you know,

what pops into my head.

I could decide left, right, left, right,

or all five to the left.

It would always be random,

which means if I get beaten,

I got beaten by my own choice.

They haven't outsmarted me.

(whistle blows)

(high tempo music)

(crowd roaring)

COMMENTATOR: Isn't that amazing?

Schmeichel has saved it.

A vital save for Denmark.

I guessed right.

Not guessed, because it was a choice.

My choice was right.

I'm in control.

JOHN JENSEN: No other Danish team

has been in the final

in the World Cup or the Euros. Never.

We made history, and we celebrated

with loads of beers.

And I remember, like, five o'clock in

the morning, sitting around a piano,

where Peter was playing,

and we were singing.

And I remember the manager came down,

because he was starting to have

his breakfast,

and he came and said, "Listen, guys,

you need to go up and sleep now,

because we've gotta train

in four hours' time.

And you have to play the Cup Final

against Germany four days after that."

(fan whistling, shouting)

Jack Charlton, nobody gives Denmark

any chance at all

of winning this match.

How do you feel about that?

Well, logically I would say exactly

the same.

When we get to the final, the kit

manager asked me into the kit room,

and he shows me the shirt.

He says, "They want you to play in

that tonight."

He thinks it's a terrible shirt, and I'm

looking at this shirt, I'm thinking,

"That's the most beautiful shirt

I've ever seen in my life.

There's no way I'm not gonna play

the final in that."

I felt that gave me some extra powers.

(dramatic music)

I knew I had to play one of

my best games.

Germany were the world champions.

They are fantastic.

They came flying for the first

20 minutes.

It was just one chance after the next.

It was kind of relentless, but we're kind

of riding out the storm.

And then we score.

(crowd cheering)

COMMENTATOR: A terrific goal by Jensen.

(high tempo music)

JOHN JENSEN: I scored a stunning goal,

but if we didn't have Peter Schmeichel

in goal,

we would probably have lost this game

by two or three goals.

And in the second half, when they start

to do everything, Germany,

Peter came out with saves

I've never seen before.

It was like Peter had eight arms,

like an octopus.

(crowd cheering)

COMMENTATOR: Vilfort. It's in.

They've scored another one.

And Denmark are now just one short

stepping stone

from the greatest night

in their football history.

JOHN JENSEN: We knew that he was

a world-class goalkeeper.

Sometimes you need to play the right

day to show it, and he did that.

That was the moment.

It was unbelievable.

Final whistle blows.

Weird.

What do you do?

How do you celebrate that?

I'm honest, I haven't got a clue

what happened after that.

Honestly.

Everything was just so unreal.

It's just so unreal. I mean,

less than two weeks prior to that,

we were not even in there, and then

we take the place from a football team

that's already in the hotel.

So, all of a sudden, they're kicked out,

and we are in their rooms.

It was for them as well.

COMMENTATOR: Peter Schmeichel,

dare I say it,

the most popular man in the whole of

Denmark at the moment.

(fireworks explode)

(high tempo rock music)

PETER: I got elevated into another

status from winning that.

LARS ERIKSEN: It was the pinnacle of

what Danish football,

and in many respects Danish sports,

had ever achieved.

But none of this would have been

possible without Schmeichel playing

what was just an absolute masterpiece

of a goalkeeping performance.

Took him to a level that

we hadn't really seen before.

(light piano music)

PETER: Playing for Denmark was always

a big dream of mine.

Walking out, hearing the national

anthem was just incredible.

We had this burning desire

to be successful,

in spite of being a small country.

And I was in the team for 14 years,

and I loved every minute of it.

That never goes away,

it's with me very, very often,

because it really meant something to

people here.

We showed the world that it can be done.

We showed people in Denmark this

can be done.