FIFA World cup 2018: France vs Denmark , Match report

France vs Denmark – Story before the match

Denmark and France equalised win over each other in the World cup finals, group stage. France won the group stage match in 1998 world cup against Denmark 2-1, and Denmark won 2002 world cup, group stage match 2-0. Apart from that, they had met each other at six major tournaments, before then that Denmark and France faced each other in Euro 1984, Euro 1992, world cup 1998, Euro 2000 and world cup 2002. In the major tournaments, France won three of the five matches against Denmark.

First half: France dominated the goal-less half

France dominated the whole half as their midfield was trying hard to keep the ball on the other side, but all the effort went worthless. France acquired 72% of ball possession, but it didn’t earn them any goal. Denmark’s Martin Braithwaite had been touched more than three times within 15 minutes of the game which was less than the combined player on the field. In this particular half, Denmark’s defender Zanka was shown a yellow card, Zanka booked for committing a foul against Grizemann at the 45+3 minutes of the game. The whole game was stretching around Denmark’s area. Interestingly, Frances’ star striker Griezmann hadn’t completed a single pass to another forward Oliver Giroud in the entire first half.

Second half: It went against the likes of France

Just the way second half started, France made their strategy very clear- Attack!, But it all went against the likes of France. Manager replaced Hernandez with Mendi, Mendi delivered most number of successful crosses than any other player in the match, but no magic was in favour of France. Denmark also created a chance, Christian Eriksen shot on target (that was the first shot from Denmark to be shot on target). Denmark’s manager replaced Sisto with Fischer as he was looking off-colour. After continuous attacks, manager of France replaced Griezmann with Nabil Fekir. In the end, the scoreline read on 0-0.