France showed their class after beating Australia 4-1 to move to the top of Group D, while Tunisia collected the first point for Africa.
France 4-1 Australia
Oliver Giroud equaled Thierry Henry’s record by scoring twice as France beat Australia 4-1 at Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah on Tuesday night.
For his 50th goal, Giroud scored in the empty net, tucking it to an easy finish following a cross by Adrien Rabbiot in the 32nd minute. He become the oldest player for France to score in the World Cup.
Rabiot had equalized for France in the 27th minute after Australia took a shock lead in the ninth minute through Craig Goodwin.
With France leading 2-1 in the first half, Kylian Mbappe added the third, rising highest to meet an Osmane Dembele cross to wheel away to celebrate with the Barcelona star.
But it was left to Giroud to steal the occasion to net his second and record goal to level with Henry, who just like him, won the World Cup with France in 1998.
Mbappe should have scored three times after an inexplicable miss in the first and the second half. However, he lost his marker on the right hand side and delivered a pint point cross for the AC Milan striker to direct the header at the far corner for what was an easy finish.
Denmark 0-0 Tunisia
Tunisia survived a late scare against Denmark to come away with a goalless draw when these two sides met in their World Cup opener at Education City Stadium on Tuesday.
Christian Eriksen had a shot late from range tipped away by Aymen Dahmen and Andreas Cornelius should have guided a goal bound shot seconds later but it came off the post.
These two sides were meeting for the first time in the FIFA World Cup finals, with only meeting in a friendly match ahead of the 2002 World Cup. Denmark won 2-1 on that occasion.
Denmark were looking to win their fifth successive opening World Cup match after doing so in 1986, 1998, 2002 and 2018.
For Tunisia, they were aiming to add to just their two wins in the World Cups – beating Mexico in 1978 and four years ago against Panama. Against Mexico, they were making their debuts in what was their opening World Cup group stage match, just like today’s game.
The game started at a ferocious pace, with Tunisia starting well and Denmark struggling to get a foothold of the ball in the game.
Tunisia thought they had scored in the 23rd minute but Issam Jebali was flagged offside after moving early to attack the ball.
Again Denmark escaped a punishment as Kasper Schmeichel pulled off a big save to deny Jebali’s dink in one-on-one situation in the 43rd minute.
The big tall striker from Odense BK in Denmark had another chance in the second half when he raced clear, but tried to play it across but the Danish players cancelled the danger.
Denmark also had a goal chalked off in the 55th minute when Andreas Skov Olsen’s powerful shot saw one of his defenders flagged offside.
The game continued at a Formula 1 pace, but neither goalies were troubled. Its Tunisia’s first clean sheet at a World Cup since the goalless draw against West Germany in 1978, with the latter being the defending champions then. The draw between these two sides is also the first in this World Cup.
