France and Denmark played out one of the most nondescript draws in World Cup history. This draw and a historic victory for Peru against the Aussies meant that both these sides were through to the next round. Also, after a long wait of 37 games, the buzzing football fraternity witnessed a 0-0 stalemate between two outfits.
The first-half started off as envisaged, with France comfortably getting themselves into the game and Denmark placing bodies behind the ball to restrict their opponents from scoring. The Danes had the first opportunity of the fixture when Andreas Cornelius offered a headed pass to Martin Braithwaite, who couldn’t meet the ball and was mauled by two defenders at once.
Center-back Simon Kjaer wide header only implied that Denmark was ready to grab their chances with full authority. The Frenchman, despite eating up more possession, looked shaky on both sides of the pitch. Minutes later, the best chance of the game fell to Tottenham Hotspur ace, Christian Eriksen. The crafty midfielder couldn’t quite make the right connection and eventually, the ball was mopped by Mandanda.
Apart from a chance to Giroud and a couple of wayward long-range attempts from Griezmann and Dembele, France had nothing to boast about. Going into the tunnel, Denmark knew that they would go through irrespective of their result, as Australia then, needed nothing short of a miraculous climax to their match against Peru.
And as many would predict, the second-half got slower as it was played at nothing more than a pedestrian pace. Åge Hareide’s side sat deeper and soaked in all the pressure, frustrating Olivier Giroud and co. to a large effect. In this half too, Christian Eriksen had a couple of openings which he didn’t capitalize on.
Olivier Giroud blazed one shot over the post and the unwillingness of French players to get into the box and receive crosses summed up the evening. Crosses from Griezmann and Lemar were either not met by anyone, or were poor, to say the least.
The fans in the stadium closed the curtains on the game with boos and other signs of frustration.