Hong Kong: Denmark defeated South Korea 3-1 to win an international friendly soccer tournament here on Wednesday spoiling the chances for Dick Advocaat's men of making it two tournament wins in a row inside seven days.
Goals from defender Lars Jacobsen, striker Jesper Bech and midfielder Michael Silberbauer sealed the Carlsberg Cup win for the Danes, who failed to qualify for this year's World Cup finals in Germany.
South Korea were hoping to win their second international soccer tournament after lifting last week's LG Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
But despite a bright start when striker Cho Jae-jin headed home to put them ahead in the 13th minute, they failed to add to their tally as Denmark finished the better of the two.
The Koreans came close to adding to their tally in the 27th minute when midfielder Kim Nam-ils ferocious shot struck the far post.
South Korea came under pressure towards the end of the first half as Denmark finally woke from their slumber.
Anders Due's corner was played low and wide to defender Las Jacobsen who struck a powerful 25-metre shot which flew into the top corner of the net.
Denmark took a 2-1 lead in the 65th minute when striker Jesper Bech scored from the rebound after South Korean goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae failed to hold Dennis Sorensen's shot.
Silberbauer then made the result beyond doubt when he scored the Danes' third goal five minutes before time, smashing the ball into the net to give Korean goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae no chance.
South Korea coach Advocaat was disappointed with the result, but said his team were still in a learning process.
"Physically, the Danes were better than us. It was a chance to play against a physical side like Denmark. It's a learning process for us before we go to Germany. Sometimes you learn more when you lose than winning a game," said Advocaat.
"We had a chance to make it 2-0, but then the Danes got stronger and stronger. We played with five different players from the first team. The result was important but not that important to us," he said.
Denmark coach Morten Olsen was delighted with his team's win.
"I thought we played very well against an opponent who surely have a lot of things going for them," said Olsen.
Earlier, World Cup finalists Croatia thumped Hong Kong 4-0 to finish third in the tournament.
Croatia had gone into the game looking to make amends for their 2-0 defeat by South Korea last Sunday and the 1998 World Cup third place-getters proved too strong for the hosts to score a convincing victory.
Croatia scored their opening goal through Dario Knezevic from close range in the 16th minute.
Denmark extended the scoring in the 30th minute thanks to an own goal from Hong Kong midfielder Poon Yiu-cheuk.
Striker Eduardo Da Silva made it 3-0 in the 64th minute when he slotted home into an empty net after picking up Ivan Bosnjak's weighted cross.
Bosnjak then got on the score sheet when he completed the rout in the 72nd minute with a low shot.
Croatia coach Zlatko Kranjcar was pleased with his side's performance, which was a marked improvement from their earlier defeat by the South Koreans.
"We took some time to adjust coming here because of jetlag and the difference in temperature," said Kranjcar.
"Certainly our training over the last two training sessions had gone well and we made some changes. The players were very motivated recovering from a bad game on Sunday. Today they played much better," he said.
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