Joakim Mæhle followed a typical path.

The 24-year-old professional from North Jutland left his hometown club Ålborg BK early on and went to Genk.

The Belgian and Dutch leagues are considered a classic next step in Denmark.

After three and a half years at KRC, Mæhle moved to Atalanta Bergamo earlier this year.

There he forms the full-back pair with Robin Gosens.

This Mæhle is now, next to Mikkel Damsgaard and Kasper Dolberg, the face of the upswing of the Danes at this EM.

He has already scored two goals;

With speed and dribbling strength, Mæhle repeatedly lands courageously in front of the opponent's goal.

As a motor from behind, he is to push this Saturday (6 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the European Football Championship, on ARD and on MagentaTV) in the quarter-finals against the Czech Republic.

The Danish fans are really in love with their “Duracell Bunny” - probably also because its strong performance surprised even insiders.

Before the tournament, nobody doubted that Denmark had established players.

Schmeichel in goal, Christensen and Kjær in front, Højbjerg and Delaney in midfield, Poulsen in front: a more than stable axis.

"A lot of confidence and courage"

But coach Kasper Hjulmand has managed to put young players at the side of the experienced players. He uses almost the entire squad, has already used 20 players, and compensated for notable failures. In fact, as is well known, the 4-0 win in the round of 16 against Wales was achieved without Christian Eriksen and Yussuf Poulsen, the two nominally strongest offensive forces. Damsgaard and Dolberg took over these positions. And behind that is Mathias Jensen, who likes to stroke the ball.

The convincing victories over Russia and Wales have meant that the Danes are not only considered favorites at home - and are now trusted all the way to the final in London on July 11th. The team reacted cautiously to this: “We are flexible, our squad is of good quality,” says Mæhle, “we have a lot of confidence and courage. But nobody gets arrogant with us. We saw the Czechs against the Netherlands. They play with a similar intensity as we do. "

Confident, yes, never arrogant - the Danes sense their great chance to imitate the country heroes of 1992, as the winner from Ukraine would wait against England in the semifinals and thus not an overpowering opponent. "It is the media that write that we are the big favorites, not us," says midfielder Christian Nørgård, "and we don't think any further than Saturday, otherwise we would shoot ourselves in the knee."

A big topic at Mæhle and Co. was the venue - and the country whose capital is Baku.

In order to brief the players on what they are dealing with in Azerbaijan, the Danish Football Association DBU has requested extra support from the Danish section of "Amnesty International".

There are recurring reports of human rights violations in Azerbaijan;

Opposition journalists and those critical of the regime are being persecuted.

If the Danes didn't already know, they do now.

Coach Hjulmand said about the choice of this EM venue: “Nobody would say: if we want the best framework conditions for the highest sporting level of an EM - let's play in Baku!

There were economic and political reasons for choosing this venue. "