Denmark 0-0 France: World Cup highlights and recap

Denmark and France drew 0-0 in the final game of Group C of the World Cup on Tuesday, June 26. Here are all the highlights from the match.

With their spot in the round of 16 already guaranteed, and perhaps a growing sense a second-place finish wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world given the way the draw’s shaping up, France’s final group match, against Denmark at the Luzhniki Stadium on Tuesday, didn’t, to no one’s great surprise, set the tournament alight.

Didier Deschamps made several changes to his side — Thomas Lemar, Steven Nzonzi, Presenel Kimpembe, Djibril Sidibe and Steven Mandanda all started — but even so, given one of the Les Bleus’ supposed strengths is their depth of talent, this was hardly an encouraging performance.

Denmark started brightly, forcing France onto the back foot, but struggling to create many good chances outside of an almost-perfect pass from Andreas Cornelius to Christian Eriksen in the 30th minute that Mandanda did well to cut out. Denmark, knowing a draw would see them through, were mostly happy to drop off.

As for France, there were some nice moments of interplay between Giroud, Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele, but they were relatively scarce. Giroud had his side’s best chance of the first 45 minutes shortly before halftime, curling high over the bar unmarked inside the box after a layoff from Griezmann.

Things didn’t improve much in the second half, though Denmark showed a little more life going forward, perhaps in the knowledge Peru had taken a lead against Australia in the other game in the group, meaning even a loss would see them through. Still, but for a couple of speculative Eriksen efforts, they struggled to get in behind the France defense.

The biggest cheer of the half greeted the introduction of Kylian Mbappe off the bench. The 19-year-old, along with fellow substitute Nabil Fekir, introduced some minimal amount of life to the French attack, but they forced Kasper Schmeichel into only one save of note, a nice diving stop from a Fekir shot in the 83rd minute.

This World Cup has treated us to some extraordinary matches so far, so perhaps it was about time one failed to ignite. Deschamps and France will need to improve quickly if they hope to fulfill their championship ambitions, while Denmark face a tricky, but winnable, round of 16 tie against (probably) Croatia.

Next: The best player on every team at the World Cup

Highlights

The round of 16 begins on Saturday, June 30. France will play the runner-up in Group D, likely to be either Argentina or Nigeria. Denmark will play the winner of Group D, likely to be Croatia.