Qatar World Cup – Sensation: Australia defeats Denmark (1-0) and advances to the Round of 16!

Without ideas, Denmark did not find the key

Kasper Hjulmand’s resolute attacking combination was setting the tone: a wild approach driven by a pair of sharp dribblers on either side, Jesper Lindström on the left, Andreas Skov Olsen on the right. For the first fifteen minutes, the plan devised by the Scandinavian missionary goes in the right direction. Harry Souttar (10th) and Matthew Ryan (11th) both ran fast. The real poison between the lines, Skov Olsen was unable to catch the frame on his attempt at the entrance to the rooftop (14th). One final scare after a stumble from Joakim Maehle in the area (19th), and the Socceroos gradually raised their heads above the water.

Shaken in the duels, the Vikings are starting to fumble the football, struggling to find the right balance between the short game and the long game. If the use of the sides at the beginning of the meeting was promising, the many balls deposited in the direction of the pivot did not lead much, and the fault is the height of the Australian centre. As the minutes passed, tension gradually settled over the Danish camp, while the Australians began to gain confidence and take full advantage of the few balls scraped against them (22, 41).

After 16 years, Australia is repeating the feat

No longer up after halftime, the Reds and Whites struggled with a new opportunity signed by Jackson Irvin (48th). At closing time, the Australian played perfectly the final passer after ten minutes. Matthew Leakey sprinted at the offside line by Irvin, doubling hooks and body feints in front of Andreas Christensen and Joakim Mahle, before outwitting Kasper Schmeichel with a cross from the left near the post (1-0, 60).

The shock wave immediately passed through the bays of the South as we learned a few seconds after Tunisia’s opening match against France. The arithmetic then was pretty simple with the Vikings, and you had to score two goals to get out of it. Unable to get around a perfectly organized block and outflanked in the air by the towers of Harry Souttar and Kei Rolls, Christian Eriksen’s partners sent the balls without much conviction into the opponent’s zone, getting a very meager result on arrival.

The heroic result of the Australian team opens the doors to the eighth round, and this is the second time in their history, 16 years after the first. Denmark has already come out, and it has suffered from its lack of speed and speed in building. It’s a calming game and a formidable defense that will hasten the downfall of a serious outside player in the competition. Surprise, another one, at the 2022 World Cup. And certainly not the last.