JAKARTA - The Australian squad wants to present something special to its country where football is often neglected. You do this by reaching the knockout round of the 20202 World Cup through the last match of Group D against Denmark, Wednesday night.
Their golden generation once brought Australia out of the preliminary round of the sixteen-year-old World Cup group. Fronter Mathew Leckie hopes that this year's Socceroos players will achieve the same thing as at the 2006 World Cup.
"We've always believed that we can create something special," Leckie told a news conference Tuesday.
Coach Graham Arnold, who was Guus Hiddink's assistant at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, said how big it was to reach the knockout round.
To go there together, Australia must beat Denmark, but a draw is enough if Tunisia is unable to beat France.
Charged with confidence after beating Tunisia 1-0 in its first win in a World Cup finals since 2010, Australia is determined to keep that momentum maintained until Wednesday's match against Denmark.
"The result will mean nothing if we don't get results against Denmark," said center-back Harry Souttar, who performed outstandingly against Tunisia.
"We believe in ourselves and what we do. We will fight to the last in order to get results against Denmark," continued winger Craig
Denmark still has to bear the consequences of a difficult disease to score so that it can only be 0-0 against Tunisia in the first match of Group D and lost 1-2 to France in the second match of this group.
The Euro 2020 semifinalist and a subscription to the knockout round of the World Cup had to have the quality to beat Australia by rediscovering a touch of his goal.
If they win this match, Denmark will qualify because France is still too strong to be defeated by Tunisia in another Group D match.
Coach Kasper Hjulmand faced a blunt problem in the front row with his team scoring an average of three goals in one game during World Cup qualifiers.
"In this team we have a lot of goalscorers," Hjulmand was quoted as saying by Reuters. "We have great strikers, with great players across the line who can score goals."
Predictions of the first eleven players
Australia (4-5-1): Mathew Ryan; Fran Karacic, Harry Souttar, Kye Rowles, Aziz Behich; Mathew Leckie, Jackson Irvine, Aaron Mooy, Riley McGree, Confucian; Mitchell Duke.
Denmark (3-4-3): Kasper Schmeichel; Joachim Andersen, Simon Kjaer, Andreas Christensen; Rasmus Kristensen, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Christian Eriksen, Joakim Maehle; Andreas Skov Olsen, Kasper Dolberg, Mikkel Damsgaard.
Important statistics of both teams
Australia and Denmark have previously met each other four times. The last meeting took place at the 2018 World Cup which ended in a 1-1 draw. Denmark was over the wind with two wins compared to one Australian victory.
Denmark must defeat Australia in order to qualify for the last 16.
Australia currently ranks second in Group D and can qualify with a draw if Tunisia fails to beat France.
Australia has only escaped once from the group stage at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. They lost 0-1 to Italy in the round of 16.
Denmark had reached the last 16 four in 1986, 1998, 2002, and 2018. They reached quarters in 1998 in France.
This is Australia's second consecutive World Cup and they played in the same group as Denmark and France four years ago.
Denmark scored 30 goals in 10 World Cup qualifiers but scored only one goal in Qatar scored by defender Andreas Christensen.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
