France draw with Denmark in Russia World Cup’s first fruitless match

MOSCOW, 26 JUNE — The game between France and Denmark ended up to be the first Russia World Cup game without a single goal when the two sides drew 0-0 here on Tuesday.
The boring game drew boos from 78,000 spectators in the Luzhniki Stadium as France advanced into the knockout stage as Group C winners on 7 points and Denmark placed second. Peru beat Australia 2-0 in the other Group match and both were eliminated.
France, resting more than half of their first-choice players, dominated the game for most of the time but failed to score. In fact, Les Bleus only had three shots on target, while the Danes had two.
In the 33rd minute, unmarked Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembele fired a shot from the distance, which went wide. Eight minutes later, Antoine Griezmann had another attempt, which didn’t seem to cause big trouble for Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.
The Danes, for whom a draw was enough to secure a ticket to the knockout stage, didn’t have their first shot on target until first-half injury time.
Spectators could only sense a touch of World Cup games in the 70th minute, when Nabil Fekir, the substitute who went off the bench a minute ago, curled a decent shot, which hit the left side of the net. Twelve minutes later his low drive from the distance again ignited fans’ hope for a goal, until it was saved by Schmeichel.
This is the first goalless match between both teams on the World Cup stage. In their previous two encounters each side had a win-Denmark in 2002 and France in 1998.
French coach Didier Deschamps was a player of Les Bleus in 1998. – XINHUA