Schmeichel (2025) Movie Script
1
(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 War,
the invasion of Poland.
He died in that first day,
and then had his mother taken away
when the war 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 fuck up, Peter,
for fuck'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.
(explosion)
Concern is mounting that what used to
be Yugoslavia
is careering towards civil war.
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...fucking hell, you love some
fucking 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.
(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 War,
the invasion of Poland.
He died in that first day,
and then had his mother taken away
when the war 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 fuck up, Peter,
for fuck'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.
(explosion)
Concern is mounting that what used to
be Yugoslavia
is careering towards civil war.
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...fucking hell, you love some
fucking 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.