In a rather crucial match that saw the defending champions, France take on a brave Denmark team, the latter went down 1-2 as France emerged victorious to become the first team to book their spot in the round of 16. Kylian Mbappe scored twice in the second half to give the Frenchmen a double lead over the Danish, who managed to score one goal, with Andreas Christensen heading in a corner at the near post in Match 24 of FIFA 2022.
The first half is underway with Denmark rolling the ball. They do well to keep most of the possession in the first five minutes, however, are unable to do anything as they lose possession to the French. Then on, the French team keeps dominating the first half. 21 minutes into the game Antonie Griezmann takes a free kick which sees Christensen commit a foul on Mbappe, who plays it to Dembele. As he sends in the cross. Adrien Rabiot jumps and tries to head it toward the far post as Danish goalie Schmeichel makes a textbook diving save.
50 minutes into the match, Mbappe is making fiery attempts to score the opening goal for his team as he sends the ball in from the left with force to Ousmane Dembele who fails to handle the ball as it clatters off his leg and rises into the air briefly. Mbappe dashes in and tries to put it past the keeper but he doesn’t have enough space to do it the right way. A missed opportunity for France.
The first goal of the match comes in at 61 minutes as Kylian Mbappe dashes in from the left and passes the ball to Hernandez stationed on the inside, cutting further in after the pass. Hernandez lays the ball off for the striker who dribbles it through the Denmark defenders and puts it past Schmeichel who couldn’t spot the ball. France opened the scorecard 1-0 after a dry first half.
67 minutes into the game, Denmark finally got to equalize. A promising corner opportunity came after Andersen flicked Eriksen’s cross at the near post. Eriksen takes the corner from the right and curls it into Andreas Christensen who charges in and heads it past Hugo Lloris to level the score 1-1 just when it was needed. Denmark is in heat now as they are motivated to take the lead. 73 minutes in, Eriksen surges in from the left flank and strikes a bullet shot at the French goal which is cleared off with one hand by Lloris.
After a couple of back-and-forth moments by both teams, Mbappe restored France’s lead in the 86th minute as he got in behind Christensen and converted the ball into the Danish nets after receiving a fine cross from Griezmann. With the match almost reaching its end, France has got the much-needed lead to reach the knockout stages. They just need to defend this lead in the final minutes.
7 minutes are added to the second half as the Danish team now shifts to top gear, shooting at every opportunity they get to level the score.
The win makes the defending champions the first team to seal a spot in the round of 16.
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