Following Olivier Giroud’s record-tying brace versus Australia on Tuesday, Thierry Henry may not be perched pretty on his perch for much longer. Two former Arsenal strikers can now proudly boast to sit atop the all-time goalscoring charts for the France men’s team.
Craig Goodwin scored within the first nine minutes for Craig Deschamps’ team, who had struggled in the UEFA Nations League over the summer. However, Giroud’s 50th and 51st goals for France, along with headers from Adrien Rabiot and Kylian Mbappe, turned the game around.
The defending world champions are comfortably in first place in Group D and will advance to the knockout stages with a win. If Tunisia and Australia’s match ends in a draw, they could even clinch first place.
The last time the World Cup hosts won their first game of the competition was Brazil in 2006. Now that France has broken this curse, they can try to win six games straight at a World Cup finals.
Christian Eriksen was able to show off some of the midfield flair that has made him popular with Manchester United supporters, but the Red and Whites’ opening match against Tunisia was otherwise a forgettable affair. This was Christian Eriksen’s first major tournament appearance for Denmark since his cardiac arrest at Euro 2020.
Even though they had to hold off a late VAR check for a potential penalty on Yassine Meriah’s handball, Tunisia would have felt the most betrayed not to have won all three points in one of the few 0-0 draws that occurred in round one.
The Scandinavian nation could make World Cup history in this game as they have drawn their last four games and could now become just the second team to play out five straight draws on the biggest stage in the world. However, there are some encouraging signs for this Danish team as they have now kept three clean sheets in their last four games.
Indeed, their final match before the World Cup saw them run out 2-0 winners over France in the Nations League – having also claimed a 2-1 victory in June – and they also overcame Les Bleus 2-0 in the group stage of the 2002 World Cup, when France were defending champions.
So can they do it again?
Here is what the market thinks!
1X2 Betting Odds
France without a doubt are the favourites to win this one, with odds standing at 1.8.
Denmark who are the underdogs coming into this match, have the market odds of 5.1.
The chances of a stalemate stand at a modest 3.75.
Denmark’s spate of positive results against France both in and outside of the World Cup should lead to some optimism within the Red and Whites’ ranks, but a largely toothless attacking performance versus Tunisia has not set them up well for a meeting with the holders, who I think will march on to the last 16 in comfortable fashion!
Total goals over/under
The odds that the total number of goals score will be over 2.5, stands at 2.12.
While the odds that the total number of goals will be under 2.5, stands at 1.82.
