Sell-out crowd in Hamburg celebrates FC Copenhagen friendship
Eye-catching choreos were the order of the day on Sunday at the Volksparkstadion, where 54,000 fans watched Hamburg take on FC Copenhagen in a friendly match held to mark an amicable relationship between the two clubs that dates back to 2005.
The story began over 25 years ago, during the 2005/2006 season, when Die Rothosen and Copenhagen drew each other in the first round of the UEFA Cup, with a place in the group stage at stake. Fans of the Danish club had planned a choreo for the first leg in Hamburg, but they ran out of sticky tape. Empathising with their dilemma, HSV fans stepped in to help them out.
In the return leg, the Copenhagen faithful returned the favour and offered a helping hand to the large travelling support from Germany. Despite the dramatic events on the pitch that night - Rafael van der Vaart slotted home an injury-time penalty to secure a 2-1 aggregate win for Hamburg - a friendship was sealed that endures to this day.
Since that initial encounter, the relationship has developed significantly, with fans regularly travelling in both directions across the Germany-Denmark border to attend matches. An addition, Hamburg, who have had 14 Danish players over the years, including Lars Bastrup and Thomas Gravesen – held a pre-season training camp in Helsingør, just north of Denmark's capital, at the beginning of July.
Just like in 2005, there was late excitement in Sunday's friendly match too, as Kofi Amoako and Nicolai Remberg both scored in the last seven minutes to hand the hosts a 2-0 victory. For once, though, the scoreline was somewhat secondary, as the home fans put on impressive choreo displays to mark the occasion and generally revelled in the joyous nature of the encounter.
This is the second time that the clubs - separated by just 335 kilometres - have met in a friendly in recent times: in 2025, in a match many years in the making, 8,000 HSV fans travelled to Copenhagen’s Parken Stadium to see the two teams play. The away side lost 1-0 on the day, but, much like Sunday's game, it was the heartwarming scenes of mutual friendship in the stands that left a lasting impression.
