FC KøbenhavnGround: Parken Visits: 4
Date: 6th December 2006 Match: FC København - Celtic 3-1 (UEFA Champions league) Attendance: 38 647
Date: 10th October 2009 Match: Denmark - Sweden 1-0 (FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifier) Attendance: 38 004
Date: 11th November 2011 Match: Denmark - Sweden 2-0 (Friendly) Attendance: 18 067 Date: 28th June 2021 Match: Croatia - Spain 3-5 after extra time, 3-3 at full time (UEFA EURO 2020) Attendance: 22 778
The first football ground on the site where Parken is situated was inaugurated on 25th May 1911. Københavns Idrætspark, as the ground was called back then, hosted 233 Denmark internationals until its demolition in 1990/1991. When I was growing up football on TV was not as common as it is today but living in southern Sweden I had access to Danish TV and in 1985 I watched one of the most famous matches Denmark ever played at Københavns Idrætspark. On their National day (5th June) Denmark beat the Soviet Union by 4-2 and this match is by many regarded as the best ever match played at the old Idrætsparken. The new stadium was ready in September 1992 and was named Parken. The pitch was rotated 90 degrees with only the old main stand remaining , as one of the end stands. This stand was three-tiered and visiting fans to Parken was normally placd in lower tier of the stand. I was in the middle tier for FCK-Celtic in 2006 and it was obvious this old stand was letting the ground down. In December 2007 the demolition work started and 18 months later Parken was once again a four sided ground. The new end stand has been given the name SuperBest tribunen.
Denmark against Sweden is always a very special match and with two matches to play in this qualifying campaign and Denmark being top, three points ahead of Sweden, this was one of the most important matches ever played between the two countries. Even if there is a long standing rivalry when it comes to football I would describe it as a friendly rivalry though. Copenhagen is only two hours on the train for me, the Öresund bridge/tunnel has helped a lot to integrate the two countries even more, and it hardly feels like going abroad when I travel to the Danish capital. As I arrived at Camp Sweden´s temporary headquarters at Kongens Nytorv there was plenty of Swedish fans there already singing and chanting. Two hours later the march started and with a police escort thousands of Swedish fans marched the 3 km from Kongens Nytorv to Parken. The march lasted around 50 minutes and when the locals looked out of their windows all they could see was an ocean of yellow and blue. Lots of waving and picture taking! The match itself was almost a carbon copy of our match against Denmark in June. Not many chances, probably a bit boring to a neutral. Sweden once again failed to score a goal and when Denmark scored with ten minutes to go we all knew what it meant. No World Cup for Sweden. Pictures from Denmark v Sweden (October 2009) Kongens Nytorv
Kongens Nytorv
Swedish king ?
Kongens Nytorv
Nyhavn
Danish fans
Marching on!
A-Stand
B-Stand
C-Stand
Danish fans (Denmark - Sweden, Friendly)
Warm-up (Denmark - Sweden, Friendly)
A-Stand
View of play (Denmark - Sweden)
B-stand (Denmark - Sweden. Tifo saying thanks to Martin Lauritsen)
B-Stand (FCK - Celtic)
Kick-off (FCK - Celtic)
C-Stand
Swedish fans inside Parken Pictures from Croatia v Spain (June 2021) ![]() Croatian fans outside the ground Spanish fans outside the ground ![]() National anthems Croatian fans inside the ground View of play D-Stand Panos Pano
Pano (Denmark - Sweden, Friendly)
Pano (Denmark - Sweden)
Pano (FCK - Celtic) |