Education City Stadium forms the backdrop for an exciting 2022 FIFA World Cup Group D curtain-raising fixture between Denmark and Tunisia.
Reigning world champions France and Australia will face each other in the other Group D matchday-one contest, so winning in Al Rayyan could be of paramount importance to De Rød-Hvide’s bid to reach the knockout stage.
Denmark’s near-perfect qualifying campaign (W9, L1) ensured only their sixth appearance at a World Cup finals, including a second on the bounce after a last-16 exit in Russia four years ago.
Plenty has changed for the better in Kasper Hjulmand’s camp since their last attempt to make a standout achievement at the world’s most prestigious tournament.
The Nordic country won the hearts of neutrals at last summer’s European Championships after overcoming Christian Eriksen’s cardiac arrest in the opening-day loss to Finland to make it to the semi-finals.
Reluctant to rest on their laurels, Denmark came close to dispatching France to League B in the 2022/23 UEFA Nations League season, eventually finishing second to Croatia in a highly competitive Group A1.
But Hjulmand’s men have been under pressure in Qatar after FIFA banned them from training with jerseys bearing the message ‘Human Rights for All.’
Like their rivals, Tunisia are set to make their sixth foray into the World Cup, yet with much lower expectations, especially following another underwhelming Africa Cup of Nations campaign earlier this year.
A demoralising 5-1 defeat at the hands of Brazil in September’s warm-up showdown exposed all of the Eagles of Carthage’s defensive woes, but Jalel Kadri’s side did well to recover.
Tunisia cruised to a 2-0 win over Iran in their pre-World Cup friendly encounter to settle the nerves among those back home, helping them regain confidence ahead of this mammoth assignment.
Also See: Group D Table & Schedule.
Match Preview
Denmark
Denmark boasted the joint-lowest total of three goals conceded among nations that played in a six-team group during World Cup qualifying, highlighting a staunch rearguard as the team’s strong suit.
As is often the case in these tournaments, defensive resilience could be the key to inspiring De Rød-Hvide’s bid to make it out of the group stage for the fifth time in six attempts.
Tuesday’s game promises to be a walk in the park for Denmark despite a topsy-turvy five-game form (W3, L2), as they’ve never lost to CAF nations at the World Cup finals (W2, D2).
Tunisia
Having won just two of their previous 15 matches at the World Cup finals (D4, L9), Tunisia enter the tournament as Group D minnows and for obvious reasons.
They have racked up just one clean sheet across those World Cup fixtures, which is in stark contrast to their scintillating record of seven consecutive shut-outs before the abovementioned loss to Brazil.
But Tunisia’s hopes of upsetting Denmark are still far-fetched, especially if you look at their disastrous ten-game winless record against European opposition at the World Cup (D3, L7).
Denmark vs Tunisia Potential Line-ups
Denmark (3-4-2-1): Kasper Schemichel; Joachim Andersen, Simon Kjaer, Andreas Christensen; Rasmus Kristensen, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Thomas Delaney, Joakim Maehle; Christian Eriksen, Andreas Skov Olsen; Martin Braithwaite.
Tunisia (4-2-1-2-1): Aymen Dahmen; Mohamed Drager, Bilel Ifa, Montassar Talbi, Ali Abdi; Anis Ben Slimane, Ellyes Skhiri, Hannibal Mejbri; Wahbi Khazri, Naim Sliti, Youssef Msakni.
Denmark vs Tunisia Prediction
Neither side would want to give too much away from the start, but we expect Denmark to hit the ground running from day one and go toe-to-toe with France in a keenly-contested battle for the top place in Group D.
The Danes’ slender-goal margin win could be the order of the day.
Denmark 1-0 Tunisia
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