France kicked off their World Cup title defense with a comfortable 4-1 win over Australia and will next face Denmark live on talkSPORT.
Les Bleus lost 1-0 to the Socceroos but the likes of Olivier Giroud, Ousmane Dembele and Kylian Mbappe proved to be outnumbered as Didier Deschamps’ men eventually lost 4-1.
And they know a win will seal their place in the last 16, but their opponents will be looking for a much better performance after a turgid 0-0 draw with Tunisia.
Kasper Hjulmand’s men have reached the semi-finals of the Euros but need a win to kick off their World Cup campaign.
France vs Denmark: talkSPORT coverage
This World Cup Group D clash kicks off at 4pm on Saturday, November 26.
The match will take place at Stadium 974 in Ras Abu Aboud.
The action will be live on talkSPORT with commentary from Joe Shennan and former Wales international Dean Saunders.
To tune into talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2 via the website, click HERE for the live stream.
You can also listen through the talkSPORT app, on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.
France vs Denmark: Squads and team news
Many injuries have already plagued France after Christopher Nkunku and Karim Benzema withdrew just before the start of the tournament, but now they have another problem with Lucas Hernandez.
The Bayern Munich man suffered an ACL and will be out, not only for the rest of the tournament, but also for the season.
His brother, Theo Hernandez, has come on and is expected to start in his place.
Meanwhile, Denmark will be without Thomas Delaney after he also suffered a knee injury.
France
- Goalkeepers: Alphonse Areola, Hugo Lloris, Steve Mandanda
- Defenders: Théo Hernandez, Axel Disasi, Ibrahima Konaté, Jules Koundé, Benjamin Pavard, William Saliba, Dayot Upamecano, Raphaël Varane
- Midfielders Eduardo Camavinga, Youssouf Fofana, Matteo Guendouzi, Adrien Rabiot, Aurélien Tchouameni, Jordan Veretout
- Forwards: Kingsley Coman, Ousmane Dembele, Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe Randal Kolo Muani, Marcus Thuram
Denmark
- Goalkeepers: Kasper Schmeichel, Oliver Christensen, Frederik Ronnow
- Defenders: Simon Kjaer, Joachim Andersen, Joakim Maehle, Andreas Christensen, Rasmus Kristensen, Jens Stryger Larsen, Victor Nelsson, Daniel Wass, Alexander Bah
- Midfielders: Mathias Jensen, Christian Eriksen, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Christian Norgaard
- Attackers: Andreas Skov Olsen, Jesper Lindstrom, Andreas Cornelius, Martin Braithwaite, Kasper Dolberg, Mikkel Damsgaard, Jonas Wind, Robert Skov, Yussuf Poulsen
France vs Denmark: the facts of the match
- This will be the fourth meeting between France and Denmark at the FIFA World Cup, all in the group stage of the competition. France have won the tournament on two of the previous occasions they have faced Denmark (1998 and 2018), the other being defending champions in 2002.
- Denmark have won their last two meetings with France in all competitions, both in the 2022 UEFA Nations League. They have never won three in a row against them before, while neither team has ever beaten France three times. times in the same calendar year.
- This is the third time Denmark have faced the reigning world champions at the FIFA World Cup. They lost 3-2 to Brazil in the 1998 quarter-finals, before beating France 2-0 in the 2002 group stage.
- France have won each of their last five World Cup games; they have never won six consecutive finals, the last nation to do so being Spain in 2010.
- Each of Denmark’s last four World Cup games have been drawn – only Belgium have ever had five consecutive draws at the tournament, doing so between 1998 and 2002.
- After beating Australia 4-1 on MD1, France became the first defending champions to win their first World Cup match of a tournament since Brazil in 2006. Only four previous defending champions have won their two first matches of a World Cup campaign: Italy in 1938, Uruguay in 1954, Brazil in 1998 and Brazil in 2006.
- Denmark have kept a clean sheet in three of their last five World Cup matches, one less than in their first 16 matches in the competition (four). However, they have also failed to score in two of their last three World Cup games, as many times as in their first 18.
- France have scored four goals in their last two World Cup games, the 2018 final against Croatia and this year’s MD1 against Australia. The last team to score more than 4 goals in three consecutive World Cup games was Hungary in 1954 (streak of four).
- Against Australia, Olivier Giroud equalized Thierry Henry to become France’s joint-top scorer, with both 51 goals. Giroud could become only the second player aged 36 (or older) to score in consecutive World Cup appearances, after Tom Finney for England in 1958 (36 years 64 days).
- Christian Eriksen created more chances than any other player in Denmark’s goalless draw with Tunisia on MD1 (5). Indeed, only Michael Laudrup (6 against Nigeria in 1998) has created more in a single World Cup game for Denmark.
talkSPORT World Cup 2022 coverage
talkSPORT will provide wall-to-wall coverage of the 2022 World Cup
We will broadcast all 64 matches of the tournament live, with over 600 hours of coverage on our network.
You can tune into talkSPORT and talkSPORT 2 via our free online streaming service at talkSPORT.com.
talkSPORT is widely available across the UK via DAB digital radio and on 1089 or 1053 AM.
You can also download the talkSPORT app or ask your smart speaker to play talkSPORT.