Denmark is at a crossroads. The country which took the European Championships by storm eight years ago has lost its enigmatic talismen - the Laudrup brothers.

Add to that coach Bosse Johansson's admission that 'things are looking very bleak' for the Danes, after a recent 1-0 defeat at home to Sweden and well, things are looking very Grimm without the brothers.

But the Danes do have something to look forward to - and it is something, or indeed someone, who they have been waiting to blossom for a long time.

Step forward Jon Dahl Tomasson - the clinical assassin from Copenhagen.

But it wasn't always thus and a Danish public have spent as much time whimpering in frustration at the performances of the Feyenoord striker - who has netted seven of the Danes 15 most recent goals - as they have celebrating his now prolific scoring record.

Because he may be the brightest thing to come out of Denmark since the Laudrups, but boy was he a slow developer.

Tomasson, now 23, started off as an amateur and slowly worked his way up to Dutch side Heerenveen after turning professional in 1994. There he was top scorer for two seasons, before making the big break and moving to Newcastle United for £2.5million in 1997.

It was his first failure and Newcastle were happy to get rid of a player that had the ability on paper to thrive in the Premiership, but couldn't get past numerous mistakes. Again he went to Holland - this time Feyenoord - and flourished.

Internationally, though, he looked woefully out of place - with a suspect first touch, erratic form and some woeful misses almost consigning his Danish career to a mytholocial tale.

But like all good fairy stories it spun on the wheel of fortune and during a vital qualifier at Anfield against the Welsh he opened his scoring account in a 2-0 victory and Tomasson and Denmark have never looked back.

Since his touch came back and coupled with an uncanny ability to emerge at the right place at the right time and the return of his finishing he scored six times in seven matches on the way to qualification.

Denmark look up to him now and defences in Holland and Belgium will be minded to keep a careful eye on a striker who makes up for his lack of pace with an ability to disappear off the shoulder of the last man quicker than he can say, 'Tinkerbell'.

Tomasson, honing this Houdini ability, has not looked back since, playing a key role as Denmark marched on to the Euro 2000.

His new goal scoring prowess has coincided with an old resilience in the Danes and a winning goal to stun a Naples crowd who were celebrating after going 2-0 up, highlights a new-found strength.

Denmark aren't the same package without him now - a fact Portugal can attest to. They only went on to beat the Danes recently when Tomasson was forced off at half-time.

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