Australia has qualified for the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time in 16 years. The Australians managed to secure a narrow 1-0 win against Denmark, despite the latter dominating most of the game.
The Danes lost the ball in the opposition area, and Australia used a counter-attack perfectly to score the only goal of the challenge in the 60th minute of the challenge through Mathew Leckie. The latter beat goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel with a low shot. The result means Australia finished Group D in second place on 6 points, the same as leaders France, but the latter qualified first because of the better goal difference.
Denmark, on the other hand, leaves the competition with only 1 point accumulated in 3 appearances. Coach Kasper Hjulmand appeared aware of his team's attacking problems as he made 3 substitutions from the previous match against France. Martin Braithwaite, Mathias Jensen and Andreas Skov Olsen were the starters against Australia, but coach Hjulmand's changes did not make a big difference on the pitch. The Danes claimed a penalty in the second half of the game when Kasper Dolberg was brought down in the opposition area, but the player was in an offside position in the build-up to the action.
Australia managed to bounce back from a crushing 4-1 defeat to France, securing wins over Tunisia and Denmark that proved decisive for progress to the next stage.
Meanwhile, at the same time in Group C, Argentina secured qualification by defeating Poland with a clean score of 2-0. However, the Poles also secured qualification, having shared the same number of points with Mexico in the group but better goal difference. The Mexicans won 2-1 against Saudi Arabia, but the result was not enough to ensure passage to the next stage.
