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Home , Aaron Mooy, Andreas Christensen, Henrik Dalsgaard, Josh Risdon, Mathew Leckie, Mathew Ryan

FIFA World Cup 2018 v Australia

THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2018 Group C, June 21 Samara Arena 22 FIFA World Cup 2018 DenmarkFIFA World v Australia Cup 2018 Group C, June 21 DenmarkSamara v ArenaAustralia Group C, June 21 Samara Arena

FIFA World Cup 2018 FIFA World Cup 2018 Denmark v Australia Denmark v Australia DynamiteGroup C, June 21 alert for AussiesGroup C, June 21 Samara Arena Samara Arena he consensus going into this vital Group C Denmark Australia contest is that Denmark are the favourites, 12 12 FIFAFIFA rankrank 36 36 12 FIFA rank 36 12 FIFA rank 36 but not overwhelmingly so. Everything Nickname| DanishDEN 1-0 PER DynamiteMatch 1 AUS 1-2 FRA DEN PER AUS FRA NicknameDEN 1-0 PER Match 1| AUSThe 1-2 FRA Socceroos HEAD-TO-HEAD 12 1-0 FIFAMatch rank 1 1-2 36 HEAD-TO-HEAD T Denmark 2 Australia 1 Denmark 2 Australia 1 Going into the World Cup with points to a highly competitive match-up be- DEN PER AUS FRA 1-0 Match 1 1-2 a new manager after Ange Pos- tween nations with respectable FIFA World Cup DEN 1-0 PERHEAD-TO-HEADMatch 1 AUS 1-2 FRA Recent Recent tecoglou quit in November. Bert traditions, desperate to write new and successful meetings Draws 0 meetings Draws 0 2012 Denmark 2-0 Australia Denmark 2HEAD-TO-HEAD Australia 1 2012 Denmark 2-0 Australia van Marwijk has not had much chapters in their world finals history books. 2010 Australia 1-0 Denmark 2010 Australia 1-0 Denmark WORLD CUP RECORD HEAD-TO-HEAD WORLD CUP RECORD time to get to know his players. The onus is on Australia as they need to put 9 Wins 2 9 Wins 2 2 Draws 3 Denmark 2 Australia 1 2 Draws 3 6 Losses 9 6 Losses 9 Strengths points on the table after being edged by 1.65 Goals for* 0.86 1.65 Goals for* 0.86 1.41 Goals against* 2.00 1.41 Goals against* 2.00 2-1 in their opening match, while Denmark *Per match © GRAPHICDenmark NEWS 2 Australia*Per match1 © GRAPHIC NEWS Van Marwijk will aim to tighten will be motivated by the knowledge that three the defence and hope that pacy points could mean a spot in the knockout stage. players such as Recent The Danes also have the possibility of winning and can cause meetings Draws 0 successive matches for just the second time in Recent damage up front. their World Cup history. meetings2012 Denmark 2-0 AustraliaDraws 0 Weaknesses There are a couple of moments in history that 2010 Australia 1-0 Denmark This team are not used to play- 2012 Denmark 2-0 Australia ing opponents of the high - will make for pleasant reading for Socceroos Possible line-ups: ; fans. Australia coach and Den- 2010 AustraliaWORLD CUP1-0 RECORDDenmark Possible line-ups: ; Aziz est calibre and may be over - , , Behich, , , whelmed against France, Den- mark coach Age Hareide met in 2008, when the Simon Kjaer, ; Lasse 9 WORLD CUPWins RECORD 2 former was in charge of the Netherlands and ; Aaron Mooy, , mark and Peru. Schone, , Christian 2 Draws 3 Hareide leading his homeland Norway; the Recent 9 Wins 2 , Robbie Kruse; , Eriksen; , Nicolai Jorgensen, 6 9 Mathew Leckie Dutch won 1-0. Van Marwijk’s Netherlands also Yussuf Yurary Poulsen meetings 2 LossesDraws 3 Draws 0 beat Denmark 2-0 en route to the Final of the 1.656 GoalsLosses for* 0.869 2010 World Cup. Åge Hareide has taken over OFF SIDE 2012 Denmark1.651.41 GoalsGoals2-0 against* for* Australia0.862.00 Denmark go into the clash knowing a win from and plays *Per match © GRAPHIC NEWS could almost certainly see them progress to a more direct football than his 1.41 Goals against* 2.00 the knockout stages. The absence of William predecessor while setting2010 up Australia*Per match 1-0 © GRAPHICDenmark NEWS After centuries of colonization and Kvist, who broke two ribs against Peru, will be the team to get the best out of exploitation and decades of dashed Christian Eriksen. a massive handicap for the Danes as they look Did you know? to recover balance in midfield. Regardless, the Strengths WORLD CUP RECORD hopes on the pitch, I want to see an Aussies will have a battle on their hands to break Eriksen is one of the best play- Denmark are on an unbeat- African country get an equal place on down a Danish defence with five successive makers in Europe and there9 is en run of 16 games in all 2 clean sheets. pace on the left side with Celta competitions, with nineWins wins the world stage. Australia can take a lot of confidence from Vigo’s Pione Sisto. and seven draws since a their opener against France. They more than Weaknesses 2 1-0 defeat by MontenegroDraws 3 he World Cup is well held their own and played to their strengths Hareide’s first-choice defen- on 11 October 2016. Only Tunderway. I know be- and setup. This match with Denmark is really sive , ,6 Spain (21) and BelgiumLosses (20) 9 cause I’ve been gorging a must-win if the Socceroos are to have any has lost his place at his club, FC are on better unbeaten runs myself on a visual diet of chance of progressing beyond the group stage. , and may not1.65 start Goals for* 0.86several games a day. Maybe To achieve this they must find the missing link in Russia, potentially leaving a you have, too. They’ve been up front and capitalise on their chances. gap for opponents to exploit.1.41 2.00pretty exciting, since many MUSA OKWONGA Goals against* of the teams expected to sail *Per match © GRAPHIC NEWStoward the next round have Point Table instead been stumbling: , the defending champions, fell to Mexico; France just barely edged past Australia; Spain, Brazil and Argentina all tied in their first matches. But there’s been one thing that’s disappointed me: This surge of the less-favored countries hasn’t included any from Africa. The first four to compete — Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Ni- geria — all lost. It was always a long shot, but now the dream of an African team holding this trophy aloft seems further away GROUP A than ever. MP W D L GF GA PTS I was born and raised in Britain but I’ve often shared that Russia 2 2 0 0 8 1 6 dream. Whenever England is eliminated from the World Cup, Uruguay 2 2 0 0 2 0 6 my affections go next to the best African team. That’s not just Egypt 2 0 0 2 1 4 0 because my parents moved to England from Uganda. It’s also Saudi 2 0 0 1 0 6 0 because Africa, having suffered centuries of colonization and GROUP B exploitation, has so long been denied an equal place on the MP W D L GF GA PTS global stage. There are several reasons no African country has Portugal 2 1 1 0 4 3 4 ever got past a quarterfinal. One is that, well, this is the World Spain 2 1 1 0 4 3 4 Cup. Most of the teams are good; this is serious competition. Iran 2 1 0 1 1 1 3 As Al Pacino’s character says in his famous speech in the 1999 Morocco 2 0 0 2 0 2 0 movie “Any Given Sunday,” the difference between glory and failure is “inch by inch, play by play.” (Yes, I know the movie is GROUP C about the other “football.”). In 1990, Cameroon was just seven MP W D L GF GA PTS minutes away from reaching the semifinal, when England France 1 1 0 0 2 1 3 scored and dashed their hopes; in 2010, Ghana would have Denmark 1 1 0 0 1 0 3 gone to that stage, too, if only the team had scored a last-minute Australia 1 0 0 1 1 2 0 penalty against Uruguay. Peru 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 But as always with this tournament, there’s more going on GROUP D than what you can watch on the pitch. Let’s remember world MP W D L GF GA PTS history: Most of Africa was at some point colonized by Europe’s Croatia 1 1 0 0 2 0 3 empires, which subjugated these societies and stripped them Argentina 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 of their resources. This legacy has left many of the countries of Iceland 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 Africa poor and politically fractured — not exactly fertile ground Nigeria 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 for intense training and football greatness. And then there’s the GROUP E issue of migration and lost talent: After independence, many MP W D L GF GA PTS Africans migrated to the richer countries of Europe. Several of Serbia 1 1 0 0 1 0 3 their children have ended up playing for the European countries Brazil 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 where they were born or spent their formative years. Some of Switzerland 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 them — like France’s Patrick Vieira, who was born in , or Costa Rica 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 Portugal’s legendary striker, Eusebio, who was born in Mozam- bique — are among the greatest players the World Cup has ever GROUP F seen. Sometimes I take this train of thought further: How many MP W D L GF GA PTS of Brazil’s five titles does the country owe to the descendants Mexico 1 1 0 0 1 0 3 of enslaved people who came from Africa? Sweden 1 1 0 0 1 0 3 Naturally, there are contemporary problems, too. Some of Germany 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 Africa’s leading football nations have, I’m sorry to say, com- S. Korea 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 pounded historical setbacks with modern-day mismanagement GROUP G of their players and resources. (I’m thinking of Nigeria and MP W D L GF GA PTS Ghana especially.) But as France, Germany and Spain have re- Belgium 1 1 0 0 3 0 3 cently shown, the path to World Cup victory these days relies England 1 1 0 0 2 1 3 on patient investment in the national team over the course of Tunisia 1 0 0 1 1 2 0 several decades, and then a substantial helping of luck. Panama 1 0 0 1 0 3 0 Maybe someday. Sports can be a powerful symbol of progress. Remember when Muhammad Ali’s fast fists and swifter tongue

GROUP H ruled the world? On some level, I can’t wait for the day an Af- MP W D L GF GA PTS 1 1 0 0 2 1 3 rican country lands a knockout blow. Senegal 1 1 0 0 2 1 3 (Musa Okwonga is a poet and writer based in Berlin. He is the Colombia 1 0 0 1 1 2 0 author of two books on football, “A Cultured Left Foot” and Poland 1 0 0 1 1 2 0 “Will You Manage?”)