Dynamic Danes overwhelm Serbia to secure place at Women's World Cup in Brazil

The Danish women's national football team achieved what their male counterparts could not. With a convincing 4-1 away victory over Serbia, Denmark secured a place at next summer's World Cup in Brazil on Tuesday evening.

The result was the highlight of an impressive qualifying campaign led by new national team coach Jakob Michelsen and his players. The team was seeded third in the group stage but ended up winning the group ahead of Italy and Sweden.

Before Tuesday's decisive match in Serbia, it was clear that Denmark only needed a draw against the group's bottom team to secure qualification.

The Danes made their intentions clear in the first half, starting and finishing the period strongly.

The Danish players began with plenty of confidence after their 2-1 triumph over Sweden last week, and within 15 minutes they were two goals ahead.

Cecilie Floe scored the first when she poked a loose ball over the goal line from close range.

Amalie Vangsgaard then doubled the lead with a well-placed header from Sofie Svava's inswinging cross.

However, the Danes had hardly finished celebrating before the Serbs reduced the deficit as Allegra Poljak's deflected shot left Danish goalkeeper Freya Thisgaard helpless.

This prompted the home side to take control of the match, but against the run of play, the Danes made it 3-1 five minutes before the end of the first half when Pernille Harder converted a penalty after Amalie Vangsgaard had been brought down in the box.

Just two minutes later, Vangsgaard increased the score to 4-1 with the best goal of the match, curling a superb shot into the far corner to leave the Danes in firm control at the break.

With the comfortable lead in hand, the Danes were content to defend and preserve their advantage in a second half that lacked the intensity of the first.

The Danes were happy to let the minutes tick by until the referee's final whistle made World Cup qualification a reality.