Just hours after the world witnessed one of the biggest upsets in FIFA World Cup history where Saudi Arabia handed the much experienced Argentinan side a shocking 2-1 defeat, then attention now shifted to the sixth match of the tournament where Denmark squared off against Tunisia at the Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan.
Denmark gave their best performance in the 1998 World Cup losing in the quarter final against Brazil. Tunisia on the other hand, hasn’t really had too much of success in the World Cup scene, having never been able to clear the group stage.
As the match begun with the referee’s whistle, Denmark started to dominate from the first minute, but Tunisia also stayed at par with them responding equally well with their well planned counters. The first attempt at the goal came in the 3rd minute from Tunisian forward Msakni, followed by another shot by Jebali at 5 minutes, but both shots were not good enough to go past Christensen who stopped the ball with a strong block.
Another Tunisian attempt at scoring came at 11 minutes by Drager, but it didn’t convert. The resulting corner gave Msakni another chance to head one in, but that didn’t happen either. It was only in the 23rd minute that Andersen made the first attempt to score for Denmark, which didn’t happen.
A few fouls and failed attempts at the goal followed and the referee added 5 minutes of extra time to the first half, before calling it off with his whistle. The score at the end of the first half reads 0-0 with neither teams able to score. Tunisia against all odds, has surprised everyone with the performance, dominating Denmark and keeping maximum ball possession.
The second half began and the Tunisians continued from where they left in the first half with a quick attempt at scoring again by Msakni in the 46th minute followed by Drager in the 51st minute. Tunisia kept attacking the goal and get three quick corners, but were score as the ball easily got cleared by the Denmark players.
The hype moment of the match came when Denmark finally got a promising opportunity in the 53rd minute. Andreas Skov Olsen cruises one past the Tunisian defense and Mikkel Damsgaard dashes ahead to score the first goal of the match for Denmark. But the worst imaginable happened as the goal was denied since Damsgaard was offside. The match further kept going back and forth into extra time (8 minutes), but still neither of the sides were able to score a goal and get a decisive win. The scoreboard after full time read a 0-0 draw for both teams.
Both the teams played a goalless draw, but it will Tunisia, who will walk with their head held high for denying Denmark a win. Denmark surprisingly was just unable to keep up with the pace and attack by Tunisia as they got into defensive mode while Tunisia continued with their attacking gameplay.
Follow 90agency to get all the latest highlights and updates of the FIFA World Cup 2022 right from the group stages to the finals.