Group D begins in the second match at the FIFA World Cup 2022 on Tuesday and it does so with the second ranked side in it in Denmark taking on one of the African qualifiers Tunisia inside the Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan.
The Danes arrive here off the back of a run to the last four of the Euros last year while Tunisia were quarter finalists at the Africa Cup of Nations at the beginning of the year so both have good recent tournament pedigree.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the ITV 1 channel with the build-up in Al Rayyan beginning at 12.10pm and the kick off in this one coming at 1pm.
Denmark
One of the most improved teams on the international landscape over the last year or two are Denmark and now they get the chance to show that is the case on the biggest stage of them all. You would imagine the first thing they need to guard against is stage fright and if they get over that, which they should do when you consider it is only 16 months ago that they were playing in a European Championship semi-final, then they should have the quality to win this match.
Denmark are very strong at the back. They have a number of players in their back line who have either played in the Premier League or currently ply their trade there. They also have a good mix of workhorses and creativity in the middle of the park. The one area of concern is with their strikers but if they come good then there is no reason why we won’t see a positive outcome for Denmark both here and in the tournament.
Tunisia
The African outfit head to a second successive World Cup. They were competitive four years ago without making it out of the group and their initial aim will be to be competitive this time around as well because they are in a section which is going to be very hard for them to come out of. They might be advantaged by the fact they get the second best team in the group in the opening game where they could catch them cold.
The big problem for Tunisia is goals. They don’t score too many of them. They only found the net five times in the Africa Cup of Nations earlier in the year and four of those came in a win over Mauritania, who with the best of intentions are a few levels below Denmark. African sides can be hard to break down and Tunisia will need that to be the case with them and hope that they get something on the counter at the other end.
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Team News
Denmark have a couple of injury concerns ahead of the opening game. Jonas Wind has a muscle problem and could miss out while Frederik Ronnow has been absent for the last three matches for Union Berlin and this game might come too soon for him too.
Tunisia are expecting their captain Youssef Msakni to be fit for this opening match. He will be keen to feature having had to sit the last World Cup out after injuring his ACL prior to the competition. Former Sunderland player Wahbi Khazri is expected to start.
Betting
The pattern of play in these opening matches so far has been for the favourite to dominate proceedings but not really get away from the lesser side. Only England have really put an opponent to the sword and I expect that trend to continue here. I think Denmark are clearly the better of these two teams and I expect them to come out on top in the game but I don’t foresee a goal fest because I expect Tunisia to set up to be hard to beat with a point certainly no bad result for them.
Ultimately, Denmark are getting well drilled in breaking sides with little to no intent down these days such has been their rise over the last couple of years or so. The fact that Denmark can keep hold of the ball and wear their opponents down in these conditions will certainly help too. This might be a match like Netherlands and Senegal where it takes a while for the first goal to come but Denmark win nonetheless. At a shade of odds against I’ll play Denmark to win and under 3.5 goals.
Tips
Back Denmark to win and under 3.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 2.05 with BetVictor
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