I always had the Scandinavians marked down as a pretty placid bunch.

Call it an out-dated stereotype but the Danes and Swedes never struck me as the sort to get too worked up about anything.

Obviously I’m talking post-Viking era here, but since the days of pillage and plunder they have seemed a pretty affable bunch who take a lot to get flustered.

But clearly I misjudged them if their Euro 2008 qualifier is anything to go by.
We caught the game on holiday in the Canaries last week in the cocktail bar by the restaurant we had booked for later in the evening. It was the main event on the big screen, relegating the natives to watch the Spanish match in the corner.

The bar owners were clearly catering for their audience as rival Danes and Swedes appeared to be sat at nearly every table.

The score was 3-1 to Sweden when we arrived and going to plan for the unbeaten group leaders.

But no sooner had the sangria turned up at the table, a roar went up and the Danes had pulled back another goal. From three down at half-time, they were now only one adrift with about 20 minutes to go.

Suddenly the cocky Swede to our left had lost his tongue – particularly when Denmark made it 3-3 and prompted an unscripted celebration jig right in front of him by one of their supporters, who nearly fell into the screen in his excitement.

Denmark pressed forward for a winner but the game took another twist when Sweden’s second-half siege earned a free-kick. As the ball was fired into the penalty area, a yellow-shirted striker was punched well away from the action.

Referee Herbert Fandel, the guy who gave Liverpool nothing in the Champions’ League final, raced across to show the Danish defender a straight red and awarded Sweden a penalty.

It was all kicking off in our corner of Gran Canaria as Mr Sweden this time launched into his own routine. But before the kick could be taken, a fan in a Denmark shirt had charged on the pitch and attempted to level the ref with a “clothes line” that Hulk Hogan would have been proud of.

Fandel, a classical pianist in his spare time, then decided to leave this particular symphony unfinished by abandoning the game. Cue more chaotic scenes from Copenhagen to Gran Canaria.

UEFA will now rule on the result and are likely to award it 3-0 to Sweden. The Danish couple who later dined at the next table had their own conspiracy theory: “He was obviously a Swede disguised in a Denmark shirt to make us look bad” they confided between mouthfuls.

But it had certainly been eventful. And far more fun than watching England…