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Denmark Coach Steps Down Ahead of 2026 World Cup Qualifying

FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Euro 2024 - Round of 16 - Germany v Denmark - Dortmund BVB Stadion, Dortmund, Germany - June 29, 2024 Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand looks dejected after the match REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Euro 2024 - Round of 16 - Germany v Denmark - Dortmund BVB Stadion, Dortmund, Germany - June 29, 2024 Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand looks dejected after the match REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo
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Denmark Coach Steps Down Ahead of 2026 World Cup Qualifying

FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Euro 2024 - Round of 16 - Germany v Denmark - Dortmund BVB Stadion, Dortmund, Germany - June 29, 2024 Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand looks dejected after the match REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Euro 2024 - Round of 16 - Germany v Denmark - Dortmund BVB Stadion, Dortmund, Germany - June 29, 2024 Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand looks dejected after the match REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo

Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand decided to leave the job Friday and not take the team into qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.
According to The Associated Press, Hjulmand said in a statement that the team needed new energy after the European Championship, where Denmark was eliminated in the round of 16 by Germany after a game that featured one of the tournament's most controversial refereeing decisions.
The 52-year-old coach took Denmark to the semifinals of the previous Euros played in 2021 — when he was widely lauded at home for the way he dealt with the emotional aftermath of midfielder Christian Eriksen suffering cardiac arrest during the team's opening game. He also led the team to the 2022 World Cup where the Danes were eliminated in the group stage.
The Danish soccer federation said it promoted Hjulmand’s assistant coach Morten Wieghorst to take charge for the Nations League program through November. Denmark is in a top-tier group with European champion Spain, Switzerland and Serbia.
At Euro 2024, Denmark drew all three group games against England, Slovenia and Serbia.
Against host Germany the game was stopped for 25 minutes during a severe lightning storm, then swung on back-to-back video decisions early in the second half of a 2-0 loss. A goal by Joachim Andersen was disallowed for a marginal offside call before a penalty was awarded against the defender for a handball when a cross struck his arm.

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Al Rajhi Takes over Dakar Rally Lead after Miserable Stage for Lategan

Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
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Al Rajhi Takes over Dakar Rally Lead after Miserable Stage for Lategan

Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)

Local driver Yazeed Al Rajhi took advantage of a miserable stage by South Africa's Henk Lategan to grab the Dakar Rally lead in the Saudi Arabia desert on Tuesday.

Lategan led the Dakar for the past week, but errors and bad luck on the 357-kilometer ninth stage from Riyadh south-east to Haradh turned his overall lead of more than five minutes over Al Rajhi into a potentially decisive seven-minute deficit.

The rally has effectively two days and 400 kilometers remaining in the dunes of the Empty Quarter. The last day, Friday, is a ceremonial drive to the finish line in Shubaytah.

Al Rajhi, like Lategan, has never won the Dakar. This is the Saudi's 11th attempt with a best finish of third in 2022. He'd been lying second since last Wednesday. The title race appears to be between only them.

Third-placed Mattias Ekström of Sweden and five-time champion Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar were about 25 minutes behind.

“It's a bit of disaster to be honest,” Lategan said. “About 13 kilometers in we got lost. We thought we missed the waypoint but we actually had it. When we got lost we got one puncture and then towards the end we got another one and the wheel is actually flat. So, it was a messy, messy, messy day for us but it's not the end of the world, we're still in it.”

Lategan and navigator Brett Cummings were 11th on the stage and Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk third.

“We did a great job like we planned to,” Al Rajhi said. “We pushed well. We enjoyed it, that's the most important. I hope everything goes well the next two or three days to win the Dakar ... I will fight to win. It won't be easy.”

Al-Attiyah won the stage ahead of Belgium’s Guillaume de Mévius in under three hours to rise to one minute off third place overall.

His 49th car stage win, and first in the Dakar for Romanian manufacturer Dacia, lifted him to only one behind the record jointly held by Finland's Ari Vatanen and France's Stephane Peterhansel.

Sanders cushions motorbike lead Australian rider Daniel Sanders bolstered his motorbike lead to nearly 15 minutes when closest challenger, Spain's Tosha Schareina, crashed early.

The back wheel of Schareina's Honda hit a rock and sent him flying only 20 kilometers in. He resumed racing but the nearly four minutes he finished behind Sanders dropped him in the general standings.

Schareina's teammate Adrien van Beveren of France remained third, more than 20 minutes behind, while Sanders' KTM teammate Luciano Benavides of Argentina strengthened his position in fourth place by winning his second successive stage.

Benavides, thanks to collecting time bonuses of nearly five minutes by opening the way, beat Van Beveren by nearly two minutes, and repeated his win into Haradh two years ago. Sanders was third after leading until about 70 kilometers from the end.

“I only got lost a couple of times ... and lost a little bit of time,” Sanders said. “I could have pushed and made some more (time) but it's not too bad.”