Group D (France, Australia, Denmark, and Tunisia) has both the current World Cup champion as well as Denmark, a team that the world adopted as their second favorite last year during Euro 2020.
The heart of the Danish team, for lack of a better phrase, and the main player to monitor, for more than one reason, is midfielder Christian Eriksen. Last year at Euro 2020, Eriksen collapsed on the field late in the first half of Denmark’s first game. Medics administered CPR on the turf and Eriksen was taken to the hospital. Since then, he received an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) and is now back to playing for EPL side Manchester United. This will be the first major tournament Eriksen has played in since the incident, and it will be interesting to see how he inspires his team this time around.
Group D and players to watch
- France ranked 4th
- Kylian Mbappé
- Antoine Griezmann
- Olivier Giroud
- Australia ranked 38th
- Mathew Leckie
- Mathew Ryan
- Denmark 10th
- Christian Eriksen
- Andreas Christensen
- Kasper Schmeichel
- Mikkel Damsgaard
- Yussuf Poulsen
- Tunisia 30th
- Ferjani Sassi
- Youssef Msakni
France is by far the favorite to win the group. They are the current World Cup Champions and have an all-star squad. Their only weakness is their changed midfield since recently their two main players in this position, Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kanté, have been ruled out due to injuries. Their offense, including Mbappé, Griezmann, and Giroud, will surely make up for this.
I think Denmark has the best chance of placing second and making it out of the group. Despite Eriksen’s incident, was their inspiration off the field and Denmark was able to reach the semi-finals where they would fall 1-2 to England after a miscall extra time. Denmark seems to realize how well they can play, and this confidence could take them far in the tournament.
Tunisia has the best chance of sneaking into the knockout round. They have been playing well and made it to the quarter-finals of the African Cup of Nations where they would fall 0-1 to Burkina Faso.
Australia had a hard road to qualify for the tournament. They had to beat Peru 5-4 on penalties in an inter-confederation playoff game in order to secure their spot as the 31st team (out of 32) to play in the Cup. Admittedly they are a tough team and can be physical when they want to be. I think in this group, Australia’s best chance to advance will be if they use that physicality to their advantage and close down their opposition’s fast players early.
Check out the next article on futbolhijo.com for a breakdown and analysis of Group E.
Photo: Kylian Mbappé, Shutterstock, by: Romain Biard, ID: 1669991473
One comment