World Cup hosts South Africa will enter their friendly against Denmark on a roll June 5th in Atteridgeville as they are unbeaten in the last five matches with four wins and a draw. They’ve only let in one goal over that time, in a 1-1 stalemate with Bulgaria on May 24. It seems the team is heading into the World cup opener on June 11 against Mexico while at its peak. With Carlos Alberto Parreira back in the manager’s seat, and the recent string of results, the team has done a good job of working up the fans prior to the World Cup.

Parreira and his players all seem to be in a confident mood heading into the game against Denmark and he said the squad is ready to take on anybody in the world without any fear. He said the team respects all of its opponents, but doesn’t fear them. He feels anything can happen during a game, no matter who’s favoured and that his squad is steadily improving with every game, especially their goal scoring.

However, for some reason South Africa has traditionally struggled against European teams, so the manager feels a win against Denmark is important as it will give the team an extra boost of confidence heading into the World Cup.

Denmark appears to be ready for the challenge as the squad has been training in South Africa for a while now as they got there early to get used to the conditions. They have been having some trouble though, as the altitude takes a bit of getting used to and they have also complained about the lightness of the official FIFA World Cup ball, saying it’s hard to control. They also lost a warm up game 1-0 against Australia.

However, manager Morten Olsen stated the players still have plenty of time to get used to both the playing conditions and the balls and that all teams must face the same adversity. Even though Denmark enjoyed the majority of possession against Australia, they had trouble penetrating inside the box. Olsen said he’d rather have goals than possession as it’s the final score that counts in football.

Sign up at Sportsbook here to bet on the World Cup

Denmark will have one more chance to get used to everything in a game situation when they take on South Africa and it will afford Olsen a final chance to pick his starting 11 for the World Cup. However, there are some injuries in the squad as Thomas Kahlenberg is out, along with Jon Dahl Tomasson. Goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen is also hurting as are defender Simon Kjaer and striker Nicklas Bendtner.

Denmark goes into their fourth World Cup tournament ranked 36th in the world by FIFA. They will play in Group E against Holland, Cameroon, and Japan and are listed as third favourites to win the group by Expekt.com with odds of 9/2. They’re listed at 150/1 to take home the World Cup. First game for Denmark against Holland will be a tough start though.

Even though South Africa are the hosts, they are listed as least favourite to win Group A against Mexico, France, and Uruguay at 21/4 and are 100/1 to win the Cup.

South Africa and Denmark have met twice before with both games ending in 1-1 draws. One was a World cup game in 1998 and the other a friendly in 1999. Look for the same result in this match.