THERE comes a game at the World Cup where the two teams on the pitch know a draw suits them both perfectly; a game where the stakes are low, no risks are to be taken and the lineups are shuffled. This year’s edition in Russia, laden with some astonishing results, saw its first game with that permutation here at the Luzhniki Stadium on Tuesday.

And, not surprisingly, it ended in a dull and dreary goalless draw, ensuring France topped Group ‘C’ with Denmark finishing as runners-up.

It was a poor game really. For all the verbal jostling before the match, France saying they won’t give a ‘helping hand’ to the Danes and Denmark coach Age Hareide saying there was nothing special about the current Les Bleus, there was nothing on the pitch.

The Luzhniki was packed to capacity with some fans of the French side who had come all the way from Pakistan and China to watch them play were left craving to see that moment of magic; that odd goal which would spark some life into the match. There were loud whistles and boos during and at the end of the game. No one wants to watch a game like this.

In a match that saw goalkeeper Steve Mandanda become the oldest French player to make his World Cup debut at 33, there was no invention or intensity from either side. The French had made six changes to their line-up from their last game, the Danes made four. Initially Denmark’s Martin Braithwaite had made some good forays into the France box but with Australia losing 1-0 to Peru in the other match, the Danes decided not to expend any energy. France had already decided to do that from the start.

In a game played at pedestrian pace, Denmark showed exactly why the critics are panning them as a team that severely lacks in creativity and France gave hope to their potential round-of-16 opponents that despite their array of attacking talents, they remain a team that isn’t really capable of gelling together to play scintillating football. Here was the first match was no goals at the World Cup.

“We have a solid defence,” said France midfielder N’Golo Kante at the post-match press conference. “It was difficult to find weak points against Denmark. We needed a point to qualify so we decided to organise the defence.”

Coach Didier Deschamps added: “We didn’t need to take risks to do anything. There were more positives than negatives. I had some players who had played two games already so I was able to rest some while also protected players who were booked so I have a full squad to choose from in the round-of-16.”

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2018