Apart from the men's senior team, Denmark competes with a women's national team, and has teams at various youth levels for both men and women, most prominently the under-21 national team. Additionally, there is a league national team, or B-team, of the best players from the domestic Danish Superliga, playing official games in the winter break of the national league, as well as an old-boys national team. Historically, the team competed in the Summer Olympics until and including the 1988 tournament, whereafter Olympic games count as under-21 national games.

Denmark won an unofficial victory in the 1906 Intercalated Olympics, and finished second in their first official tournament, the 1908 Olympics, an achievement copied four years later in the 1912 Olympics. Although Denmark figured fairly prominently in the pre-World Cup era, international success would elude them for years from the first World Cup in 1930 and forward. Despite the country's ability to produce outstanding footballing talent, a bronze medal in the 1948 Olympics was the only result of note in 50 years. As football remained an amateur pastime, most of the best Danish footballers moved abroad to make a living, and foreign-based professionals were barred from the national team, in common with other Scandinavian countries.

In the 1960s, Denmark had a revival with a third set of Olympic silver at the 1960 Olympics, though the most notable performance was fourth place in the Euro 1964. Denmark took advantage of a comparatively easy draw, as they beat Malta and Luxembourg before losing to the USSR in the semi-final and Hungary in the bronze match. The national team rule of amateurism was abolished in 1971, which led to a vast improvement in the Danish team's performances. In 1978, professional football was introduced to the Danish leagues, which prompted the first sponsorship of the national team by Danish brewery Carlsberg, enabling the team to hire full-time coach Sepp Piontek from Germany in 1979.

In the 1982 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Denmark finished with 8 points from as many games, including a 3–1 win against eventual World Cup champions Italy, but Denmark failed to qualify for the final tournament despite the impressive result. Qualification for the Euro 1984 saw the team beat England at Wembley Stadium when Allan Simonsen converted a penalty kick for a 1–0 win. Denmark qualified for their first international tournament since 1964, and the team was dubbed "Danish Dynamite" in a competition for the official Danish Euro 1984 song. Denmark's participation ended in the semi-final when the team lost on penalties to Spain, most remembered for Preben Elkjær's penalty miss, his shorts torn apart. Following the strong performance at the finals, the name of "Danish Dynamite" became a mainstay for the following decade of Danish national team football under coach Piontek.

Denmark made their first World Cup appearance in the 1986 FIFA World Cup, and with the attacking duo of Michael Laudrup and Preben Elkjær the team surprised the world, sweeping the group, including a 6–1 thrashing of Uruguay. In the second round Denmark once again faced Spain, and once more Denmark lost out. The team received a trashing of their own, losing 5–1, including four goals by Emilio Butragueño. The first Spanish goal was caused by a miss-timed backpass by Jesper Olsen to Butragueño, an unfortunate action subsequently coined as "a real Jesper Olsen" (en rigtig Jesper Olsen). The phrase would live on for 13 years when an identical backpass was carried out by Jesper Grønkjær to Filippo Inzaghi in Grønkjær's 1999 debut game.

After the glory days of 1986 came a period of transition with faltering results. The Euro 1988 tournament ended in early defeat as Denmark lost the group games to Spain, Germany, and Italy. When Denmark failed to qualify for the 1990 FIFA World Cup Sepp Piontek was replaced by his assistant coach Richard Møller Nielsen.

Denmark's finest hour in the international competitions came in the Euro 1992. The Danes initially failed to qualify, as they trailed Yugoslavia in their qualifying group. Michael Laudrup, the star of the team, decided to quit the national team during the qualification matches, following tactical differences with Coach Nielsen. However, due to international sanctions resulting from the Yugoslav wars, Yugoslavia was barred from the tournament, and Denmark entered as the second-placed team in its group. Contrary to popular belief, the team did not rally home from seaside vacations to compete in the championships. The majority of players were already assembled to play a friendly match with the CIS when Denmark officially got the spot at the tournament.

Relying heavily on goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel and his defense, as well as creative spark Brian Laudrup, the Danish team created one of the biggest surprises in the event's history, as they went on to win the European Championship trophy under coach Richard Møller Nielsen's defensive playing style. Advancing from the group stage ahead of England and France, Denmark beat the Dutch defending Euro 1988 champions on penalties in the semi-final, and with the 2–0 win against reigning 1990 FIFA World Cup champions Germany in the final, Denmark had won its first trophy.

Following the Euro 1992 win, Michael Laudrup revived his national team career in 1993. The following years Denmark saw mixed results as they failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, before securing a King Fahd Cup win, beating Copa América champions Argentina in 1995. As defending champions at the Euro 1996, Denmark disappointed with a lacklustre performance and the team was eliminated in the group stage. As controversy had occurred over the prolonging of Richard Møller Nielsen's contract in fall 1995, including a strained relationship with the press, he was let go. The new coach was the sympathetic Swede Bo "Bosse" Johansson, who gave the team a more offensive strategy, and the 1998 FIFA World Cup saw the revival of the Danish team, starring both Laudrup brothers in their last international campaign. After beating Saudi Arabia 1–0, drawing with South Africa and losing 2–1 to later champions France in mediocre games the Danish team qualified to the knockout stages as second in the group. In the next game however Denmark played some of the best football of the tournament beating Nigeria 4–1 and thus qualified to the quarterfinals against Brazil. The Danes went out with a beautiful 2–3 defeat to the later silver medalists in a very close and emotional game. Following yet another disappointing European Championship in the Euro 2000, with many players selected for the squad despite injuries and poor form, "Bosse" decided not to prolong his contract.

The new coach turned out to be the former national team captain from the successful team of the 1980s, Morten Olsen, and the team was quickly dubbed the "Olsen Gang", a reference to the series of Danish movies based around the main character Egon Olsen and his genius (criminal) plans. The nickname was also used for the Danish team when Olsen captained it. Under Olsen, who brought with him great experience from among others Ajax Amsterdam, Denmark's tactics shifted to an even more attacking style, with an emphasis on the speedy wingers available to him at the time, namely Jesper Grønkjær and Dennis Rommedahl, and Olsen stressed the importance of only using fit and on-form players in the team – a principle that he's later been forced to go back on somewhat, as the player material available in such a relatively small nation doesn't always provide many realistic options.