As France embarks on their quest to secure a place in the next round, they face a Denmark side who disappointed in their first match and will look to recover and progress.
France will continue their title defence with a battle against Denmark in today’s fixture at Stadium 974 in Rass Abou Aboud at 16:00GMT.
It was a brilliant start for the defending champions on Tuesday night when they came from behind to win the match 4-1 against Australia at the Al Janoub Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The dream start for Australia was cut short when Adrien Rabiot headed home an equaliser in place of Goodwin’s opener. After two goals, Olivier Giroud became the joint all-time top scorer for Les Bleus with a brace, while Kylian Mbappé continued his goal scoring run with a fine goal.
Besides Benzema, France are missing several key players, including Pogba and Kante, who were unable to travel to Qatar because of injury. However, they will feel confident that their replacements, Real Madrid’s duo of Aurélien Tchouaméni and Eduardo Camavinga as well as Juventus’ Adrien Rabiot, who scored against Australia, will be able to fill in the gap.
Interestingly, France’s latest defeat was handed to them by Denmark in the UEFA Nations League last month. Les Bleus’ only two wins in their last five games were against Austria and Australia.
Denmark, had been labelled “dark horses” by many pundits for the tournament, having been on a recent fine run of form that included beating France twice in the nations league.
However, perceptions of the Scandinavians have changed after they were bullied by Tunisia in a blank draw at the Education City Stadium in their opening group D fixture.
However, the Danes would be looking forward to proving a point against defending world champions having locked horns 8 times in competitive matches and having a better record over their opponents with four wins against France’s three while one has ended in a draw. Not forgetting the France have also won two of their World Cup matches against Denmark and have drawn one.
A win will see France secure a spot in the last 16. If Denmark win instead, they will fancy their chances of coming second in the group, as they will face an Australian side next that looked disjointed and lacking any real quality in their opening match.
