All three Bees away with their nations, Mathias Jensen and Christian Norgaard with Denmark and Marcus Forss with Finland, started on the bench last night as Group B reached its conclusion.

The maths was simple; Denmark had to win to stand any hope while a positive result for Finland against the World's number one ranked side would send them through.

On home soil, Denmark netted either side of the break through Mikkel Damsgaard and Yousuf Poulsen to take control against Russia. Artem Dzyuba's 70th minute penalty threatened to dampen the party mood but events in St Petersburg would soon take centre-stage.

Finland's stubborn rear-guard action was eventually breached with 16 minutes to play when Thomas Vermaelen's header hit Finnish goalkeeper Lukáš Hrádecký and bounced in. Romelu Lukaku quickly added a second to seal those three points and leave a win enough for Denmark to go through.

And The Danes secured that win in style thanks to Andreas Christensen's piledriver and Joakim Mæhle calm breakaway goal. They will now face Wales in Amsterdam on Saturday.

For Finland they must hope that results elsewhere leave them as one of the four best third-placed teams in order to advance. They currently occupy the fourth spot in that mini-table with three groups still to complete.

Christian came on with 18 minutes to play to earn his sixth Danish cap while Mathias was introduced with four minutes to play for cap number nine. Marcus Forss also played the closing stages for Finland, his seventh international appearance.

There is no international action tonight but tomorrow sees a crucial game for Pontus Jansson and Sweden as they look to confirm their passage through from Group E against Poland.