Denmark v Australia: Match Preview
Day eight of the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia sees the return of Group C, where Denmark take on Australia.
Denmark face the Aussies on the back of a hard fought 1-0 win against Peru thanks to Yussuf Poulsen’s second half goal, whilst Australia have it all to do after falling to a 2-1 defeat against France despite an encouraging performance.
With France expected to beat Peru, this contest could see Denmark join them in the last 16 with a win, but Australia will want to avoid an early World Cup exit and will take plenty of positives from their group opener against the European Championship finalists to try and get a result here.
Denmark should expect a similar test here as they did with Peru. Players such as Aaron Mooy and Tom Rogic never look to allow opposition midfielders time and space with the ball, something which William Kvist and Christian Eriksen will need to be wary of. They have an abundance of energy and stamina and a lot of their good work starts here; they will need this to push Denmark for a result here, but will also need to be a lot more clinical in the final third.
Whilst Peru gave it a good go, Denmark managed to show some good organisation and were quick to take their chance on the counter attack. They also have a great advantage with Christian Eriksen and his specialism with a dead ball, so Australia should be wary of committing fouls in dangerous areas.
This could be just as close as the two opening group games and with both nations needing a result for different reasons, you would once again expect a goal to be enough to separate these sides if somebody was going to win it.
Kick off is at 1pm in Samara.