He was appointed manager of the Danish national team in 1962, replacing Arne Sørensen, who had managed Denmark to silver medals at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Unfortunately for Petersen, most of the 1960 silver medalists were now banned from the amateur-only national team for having signed professional contracts, and Danish football didn't have the amateur players to follow up on the success. He managed Denmark to fourth place of four participants at the 1964 European Nations' Cup, having beaten the Malta national football team, Albania national football team, and Luxembourg national football team in the qualification games. Poul Petersen was in charge of Denmark for 47 games until November 1966, winning 17 and losing 22 games.