45
14:50
…Eriksen’s chipped cross is soulful, but Meriah wins the central duel with a header.
45
14:49
Højbjerg is put in the right-hand shot 25 meters from Jebali’s goal. Another half field free kick for the Danes, probably the last action of the first half…
45
14:48
Compared to the previous games of the tournament, the added time of four minutes is very small. But not much happened in the first half.
45
14:47
Mikkel Damsgaard comes on as a substitute for Denmark
45
14:46
Denmark are making a substitution with Thomas Delaney
45
14:46
Official stoppage time (minutes): 4
45
14:46
In a midfield duel with Msakni, Delaey has been injured and has to leave the field.
43
14:46
After the following corner kick, Skhiri fires at it from the second row, but aims the shot too high.
42
14:45
Great parade from Schmeichel! Jebali is staged with a pass into the penalty area and emerges free in front of the Danish keeper. The Tunisian striker tries to lob the ball over Schmeichel, but the goalkeeper shows a strong reflex and sweeps the ball past the post. The goal would probably not have withstood a possible VAR review due to a narrow offside position.
41
14:43
Skov Olsen uses a cross pass to look for Højbjerg, who comes in the middle and comes just too late. The Tottenham player makes a second attempt from the left and passes the ball past Laïdouni on the baseline, who clears it fairly.
39
14:40
Laïdouni misses from a tight angle! After Ben Slimane’s cross Meriah was initially unable to dangerously extend the ball with his heel, the midfielder finishes from the right position but sends the ball well wide of the near post.
37
14:38
However, control of this game now belongs to the Danes. The ball relays are longer, direct duels with the strong one-on-one Tunisians are avoided more often.
35
14:37
A few moments later, the Tunisian keeper plucks a cross from the right half-field easily from the air. To date, the Danish attack actions have clearly been too harmless.
34
14:35
After a harmless corner kick, Højbjerg comes to the ball from the left and shoots from about 25 meters away. The full shot is too misplaced, Dahmen catches it safely.
32
14:33
Strongly defended by Højbjerg! Msakni turns up the heat in midfield and puts the ball through to Dräger, who wants to hook his heel. Højbjerg has that on the screen and separates his opponent from the ball in the box.
31
14:32
Here’s a good idea: Kjær chips the ball precisely into the path of Skov Olsen, who started behind the defensive line. However, he has some problems with receiving and taking the ball, so Abdi clarifies in time.
29
14:30
Although Tunisia are extremely physical and intense, it has been a very fair performance by the team so far – the Tunisians rarely foul.
27
14:28
Skov Olsen narrowly misses the ball with his head after a sharp Eriksen cross from the left.
24
14:26
Yellow card for Rasmus Kristensen (Denmark)
Kristensen steps on Laïdouni’s foot and is rightly penalized with the yellow card.
23
14:26
The Tunisian celebration is short-lived. Dräger sends Issam Jebali on his way, who runs alone to Schmeichel and stumbles the ball past the Danish keeper into the goal with some difficulty. The Tunisian striker started the pass just behind the center line – and was therefore offside.
23
14:24
With this, Dolberg does not get the ball pointed towards the goal, Andersen’s volley shot is too central and prey for Dahmen.
22
14:23
A half-field free-kick from Eriksen is saved by Tunisia on the right side of the goal, the next corner kick.
21
14:22
At the corner kick, Eriksen circles the play equipment to the far post, where Andersen climbs the highest, but gets too little pressure behind the ball.
20
14:21
Mæhle dribbles down the left wing and crosses in, Meriah extends the ball, Abdi clears the goal before Dolberg.
17
14:18
Laïdouni makes his opponent look old in midfield with a tunnel and then crosses into the box. Kjær heads in and extends the ball to keeper Schmeichel.
15
14:17
Skov Olsen sends Kristensen down the right-hand side of the box, but the striker’s cross is intercepted by Talbi – and bounces off the Tunisian defender at Skov Olsen for a goal kick instead of a corner.
14
14:14
The Danes don’t exude too much offensive danger yet and seem a little overwhelmed by the emotional and intense gait of the North Africans.
12.
14:14
At the resulting corner, Msakni runs into the first post and wants to wipe the leather with his head in the direction of the long corner, but aims far too high.
11.
14:13
Skhiri dynamically moves forward about 30 meters in front of the goal and crosses over to Dräger. He tries it from a distance, again Christensen is in between and deflects the ball. The attempt would have been good.
10
14:10
At the beginning of the game, the game mostly takes place in midfield. The two keeper Schmeichel and Dahmen have not yet had to intervene.
7.
14:08
Against this very emotional Tunisian team, the Europeans want to calm things down a bit and slowly build up the game.
5.
14:06
When Denmark have possession of the ball, there is a whistle concert, Tunisia’s advances are frenetically cheered. However, an attack on the right side fizzles out.
3.
14:03
So the Tunisian fans are making things clear in the stands. Captain Msakni fires at it from the second row, Christensen puts his head down and blocks the shot.
2.
14:02
However, Eriksen’s cross is harmless. A few seconds later, the Danish leader is separated from the ball with a risky tackle from Laïdouni. He cheers the successful sliding tackle like a goal – cheers in the audience.
1.
14:01
The team of referees comes from Mexico, the main person in charge is César Ramos and has just kicked off the game. Denmark stalks forward right after kick-off and takes out a corner kick on the right flank.
13:58
After the Danes have sung their national anthem, it gets louder again: Tunisia’s players and fans sing along particularly fervently.
13:56
Like Neuer in the DFB team, Denmark’s captain Kjær will not wear the “One Love” armband after threatened FIFA sanctions. The Danes were also banned from wearing jerseys with the inscription “Human rights for all”. The association expresses the criticism of the supplier country together with supplier Hummel in the jerseys, which were kept particularly simple – among other things, the logos can only be seen very palely.
1:50 p.m
The last comparison value for the Danes is further back: on the last Nations League matchday they defeated France 2-0. There is a change in the starting eleven: Instead of offensive player Damsgaard, captain Simon Kjær starts. The central defender will change Denmark’s system, with Hjulmand likely to play with a back three.
1:47 p.m
As for the line-ups, Tunisia coach Jalel Kadri makes three changes from last Wednesday’s friendly, which saw a 2-0 win over Iran: Bronn, Ben Slimane and Jebali replace Ghandri, Khazri and Hannibal on the bench.
1:40 p.m
Only one face from the Bundesliga is known in Tunisia: Ellyes Skhiri from 1. FC Köln is in the starting XI compared to the Danish Bundesliga players.
13:37
The list of Bundesliga legionnaires in the Danish team is long, but can only be found on the bench for the time being: the two substitute keeper Christensen (Hertha) and Rönnow (Union) play club football in the German capital, Robert Skov (Hoffenheim), Yussuf Poulsen (Leipzig ) and Jonas Wind (Wolfsburg) are also initially on the bench. Jesper Lindstrøm, who plays so strongly at Frankfurt, also has to make do with this.
13:32
Tunisia also had a good year and traveled to Qatar with confidence. The North Africans have lost only four times this calendar year, three of which are a long time ago, at the Africa Cup of Nations in January. Since then, they have kept eight clean sheets in nine games – only losing 5-1 to Brazil. From a Danish point of view, the defensive in particular needs to be cracked.
13:15
All in all, Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand should be extremely satisfied with his team over the past two years. Because in addition to the Nations League and the World Cup qualification, there was also the European Championship last year. After the collapse of Christian Eriksen, the Danish surprise team played their way through to the semi-finals with unity as a team, only to lose to England there in extra time. Hjulmand’s team want to do the same in Qatar.
13:10
After the Danes marched easily through their qualifying group and after nine wins in nine games only lost the last sportingly irrelevant game in Scotland, they are also well prepared for the current calendar year. Together with Croatia, they relegated reigning world champions France to third place in Nations League Group 1. On the penultimate match day, however, the Croatians won the direct duel with Danish Dynamite, so Denmark did not make it into the Final Four.
12:59 p.m
Hello and welcome to the opening game in World Cup Group D! Denmark and Tunisia will battle it out for the first points in this match, kick-off at 2pm at Education City Stadium.