After scoring a spectacular winner for Denmark against Sweden in qualifying, Janni Thomsen is hoping that lightning strikes twice in Friday's return fixture.
Following three consecutive defeats to their Scandinavian rivals in 2025, including a 6-1 drubbing in the UEFA Women's Nations League, Thomsen flipped the script with her injury-time winner in Gothenburg in April to seal a deserved 2-1 victory.
Thanks to their subsequent goalless draw against Italy, the Danes are now for an automatic qualifying spot for Brazil 2027 ahead of crunch qualifiers against Sweden and bottom-placed Serbia.
In 22 meetings, Denmark have never secured back-to-back victories against Sweden. But, as Thomsen tells FIFA, victory in Odense on Friday will go a long way to sealing the Danes' return to the global stage.
Janni Thomsen: We have been doing very well. [At the start of qualifying] I wasn't with them as I was injured but they did a great job and got some good points, which was very important for us. The Sweden match was really hard but we got a late win which was really cool. It was obviously very cool to score that goal but the most important [thing] was getting three points for the country. Now we are in a very good place to finish very well but we still have some very hard games to come.
It was one of the most important... to get that late goal in the last minute of a match against Sweden, who are a very good team and one of the best in the world... was very important.
When we play Sweden or Norway, it means a little bit extra. To win this [game] was very cool. We have played Sweden a lot - we played them last year [in the Nations League] and at [UEFA Women's EURO 2025]... so we actually had not beaten them in an 'official' match.
From a points perspective, if we draw against Sweden and win against Serbia then we will be in a very good spot. We will obviously try to win every match that we go into but we have to be smart. But to beat Sweden twice is a hard one.
At both the World Cup and EURO, we didn't really play at our best. But at the World Cup, we got through the group stage and played Australia in Sydney in the round of 16. That was really sad but we did OK. We really want to be a team that plays for finals as we did at [UEFA Women's EURO 2017].
It's really cool. I really like Utah, the weather is really nice and I like the mountains. It suits me very well as I'm not a big city person. I have a nice apartment with a nice view. It's a little bit hard to be away from friends and family but I try to stay in touch with them as much as I can. The NWSL is, I think, the hardest league in the world, I would say. It's a great, hard physical level.
It's a big dream to go to the World Cup. When you play for a country, you really want to go the big tournaments. After going to Australia, which was one of the biggest experiences of my career, you really want to go to Brazil. We know it will be hard but it is nice that we are in first place now. We also have enough points to be second or third, which means that we can still get to the World Cup [through the play-offs]. We are in a very good spot and to qualify would be a dream for us.
Sources: FIFA Official
