Former Aberdeen goalkeeper Peter Kjaer has warned Scotland to be at their best against a resurgent Denmark at Hampden tomorrow.
The Danes will also be absent from this summer’s European championship finals in France after losing a play-off against Scandi-navian rivals Sweden in November.
Failure to qualify for the tournament ended Martin Olsen’s 15-year tenure in charge of the national team. Norwegian Age Hareide took over earlier this month and made a winning start with a 2-1 home win against Iceland in Herning on Thursday.
Kjaer, pictured below, said: “I can’t remember so much being written about a win in a friendly as there was when Denmark beat Iceland the other night.
“There was a lot of focus on it because we have a new coach. All eyes will be on this game against Scotland, Denmark certainly aren’t treating it like a normal friendly.
“It is an important match because of the new coach and the new system the team is using.
“The team played a 3-5-2 formation against Iceland and did very well.
“Both Denmark and Scotland are now building towards the next World Cup qualifying campaign.
“Denmark have drawn a difficult qualifying group with Poland and Romania and they are trying to find the right team that can win the group.
“This is a big game for Denmark, so Scotland should expect a difficult game.”
Kjaer, who spent the final two years of his career at Pittodrie and was capped four times by Denmark, said his countrymen were bitterly disappointed by the failure to qualify for Euro 2016.
He said: “We tend to think we are a better football nation than Norway, Sweden and Iceland, but we didn’t go through.
“To be fair to Sweden, they deserved to progress over the two games.
“But we were very dis-appointed as we thought our team was better than Sweden, but that wasn’t the case.
“However, we have a good squad with some exciting players.
“The Scottish people know all about the English Premier League so they will know about Christian Eriksen from Tottenham, who played his best international for Denmark for a long time against Iceland. He looks very sharp.
“I have been very impressed by the defender Andreas Christensen, who is on loan at Borussia Munchengladbach from Chelsea. He is only 19 but looks very promising.
“They may give Celtic’s Erik Sviatchenko a chance against Scotland. I hope he does get to play as all players want to play against the national team where they earn their money.”