The Danish football team’s season in the men’s World Cup already ended in the first group. It is a huge disappointment for a country that was in high spirits before the World Cup tournament.
In the summer of 2021, Denmark reached the EC semi-finals. In the fall, Denmark finished second in its group in the A level of the Nations League. It beat France twice, for example, but Croatia managed to win the group. In the World Cup qualifiers, Denmark won nine games in a row and only lost in the last round, when the group win and the World Cup place were already in the pocket.
Denmark’s place in the starting group of the World Cup was confirmed when it suffered a 0-1 loss to Australia in the final round on Wednesday. The winning goal was scored by the player representing his home country Melbourne at the club level Mathew Leckie, when the match had been played for an hour. Denmark had previously lost to France 1–2 in the World Cup tournament and played 0–0 with Tunisia.
Experts: “Denmark was apathetic, quiet”
– Denmark was apathetic, quiet today. Phlegmaticity was not caused by a bad attitude. The team simply couldn’t find the keys to unlock Australia’s really tight lock, wondered Urheilu’s expert Juho Rantala in the newsroom.
Huuhkajie’s head coach who works as an expert in ‘s studio Markku Kanerva said that he expected clearer changes to Denmark’s playing during the match and a clearer reaction during the break. At the break, Denmark changed the right wing-back when Alexander Bach your ear Rasmus Kristensen.
– How did it affect the game? I didn’t notice any significance. Then in the 69th minute Mikkel Damsgaard and Kasper Dolberg in, two clean vertices. The grouping is still the same 4-3-3.
– Denmark’s playing was very ineffective. Of course, credit to Australia, they played so selflessly, Kanerva stated.
Denmark was not able to threaten the compact Australian defensive line much. Expected goals went narrowly in Australia’s favor, 0.68–0.62, although Denmark won 69–31 in possession. Goal attempts went to Denmark 14–8, but bets per goal went to Australia 4–3.
Kanerva said that Australia scored from a situation that was predicted to be Denmark’s weakness, i.e. from a negative turnover.
Below you can see the goal summary of the match and how Australia’s winning goal was scored in the studio.
Has worked as Denmark’s head coach since 2020 by Kasper Hjulmand position under threat? Kanerva believed that there was credit. Hjulmand has now coached Denmark in 37 games, including 22 victories. The EC qualification starts already in March, Finland plays in the same group.
Follow-up location in Australia: “Cold shivers”
France had already secured their group victory, so they started the match against Tunisia with a “second crew”. Tunisia surprised the reigning world champion 1–0. The player representing French club Montpellier scored the winning goal Wahbi Khazri.
However, Tunisia’s victory did not help the next place as Australia won their own match. Thus, Australia, considered one of the weakest teams in the Games, advanced from a really tough group.
– Absolutely incredible performance. The biggest bomb of the Games. I didn’t encourage anyone, but the chills go away. This was such an amazing victory of work, sweat and cooperation, said expert Juho Rantala in the commentary about Australia’s victory in Denmark.
– Great defensive game. This team has put themselves out there and deserves everything they have achieved. With all due respect to the leagues the players play in, this is an incredible performance from the Australian team. Australia perhaps dulled all the blades of an already dull Denmark.
The Australian team mainly consists of players who play in their home country’s A-League, the Scottish Premier League, the Danish Premier League and the English Championship.
Danish newspapers shout: Embarrassment, scandal, fiasco…
– Embarrassing and humiliating, summarizes the Danish newspaper Ekstrabladet’s title (you will switch to another service).
– Too many of Kasper Hjulmand’s players did not reach their level. The responsibility is his, but the players have to go home and look at themselves in the mirror, Ekstrabladet charged, stating that the Danish national team sank to the bottom.
BT magazine loop (you switch to another service) is full of headlines about the Danish disaster in larger letters: “Absurd events”, “Scandalous collapse”, “Gigantic fiasco”.
– The biggest disappointment in history for the Danish national team, lehti writes (you switch to another service).
Expert Lasse Vøge says in the article that in its history, Denmark has fallen out of the prestigious championships with three losses and the World Championships in 2010 were also weak.
“But there’s so much quality in this team, they’re in their prime and they arrived in Qatar in a great mood based on their success over the last year and a half.” And the team got a starting group with two teams (Tunisia and Australia) that Denmark should beat 19 times out of 20, Vøge explained.
Danish Broadcasting DR title (you are moving to another service), that the team lacked both courage and identity. According to DR, the Danes were down and the team lacked freedom and leadership. The captain was particularly criticized for this Christian Eriksen.
Head coach Hjulmand took the team’s sinking “100% to his fault”.
– I am disappointed and frustrated. The time for analysis is later. Now the emotions are bubbling up too much.
In Australia, the streets were filled in the middle of the night
On the other hand, in Australia, the mood was on the roof when it was around 4 am on the east coast of Australia. Video material from, among other things, Fed Square in Melbourne’s downtown area spread on social media.
– Magic Mat! Leckie’s brilliant performance sealed a great victory for the “Socceroos”, among others Herald Sun glowed (switch to another service).
Australia lost to France 1-4 at the start of the tournament, but then won 1-0 against both Tunisia and Denmark thanks to their fine defense.
– A lot of faith, a lot of hard work. These players have a great attitude. We’ve been working on this for four and a half years. I could see in their eyes that they were ready tonight, beamed Australia’s head coach Graham Arnold According to The Sydney Morning Herald (You will be transferred to another service).
France will play in the quarterfinals against the second place in Group C. Australia will receive the winner of Group C. In Group C, Poland, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and Mexico are fighting for the next places.
The matches Poland-Argentina (TV2) and Saudi Arabia-Mexico ( Areena) start at 21:00.
Head coach Arnold said it’s not time to celebrate yet.
– As I told the boys after the great win in Tunisia. No parties, no emotions, no social media. Sleep.
Below are the final standings of the World Cup groups that have already been played so far, as well as the situation in Group C before the final round:
Block A:
Block B:
Block C:
Block D: