Saturday at the World Cup: Can Argentina bounce back? France play Denmark | Football News

Argentina are tasked with atoning for their shock defeat to Saudi Arabia, while France and Denmark are also in action at the World Cup on Saturday.

The day will see Tunisia build on a first-round draw as they face Australia before Poland will seek to avoid defeat to a buoyant Saudi Arabian side following their upset of Argentina.

Reigning World Cup champions France will then look to continue their winning start against a team that have beaten them twice already this year in Denmark.

The final fixture of day seven will see the Latin American clash between Argentina and Mexico.

World Cup fixtures – November 26

• Tunisia vs Australia – Group D, kick-off 10am

• Poland vs Saudi Arabia – Group C, kick-off 1pm

• France vs Denmark – Group D, kick-off 4pm

• Argentina vs Mexico – Group C, kick-off 7pm

Spirited Tunisia hopes for home-like advantage against Australia

Expect “TUN-is, TUN-is, TUN-is” chants to reverberate around the Al Janoub stadium as Tunisia enjoys overwhelming home-like support when it takes on Australia in each team’s second match at the World Cup on Saturday.

One of the four Arab teams at the first World Cup in the Middle East, Tunisia had arguably the loudest set of fans in the first round of games when it held European Championship semi-finalists Denmark to a 0-0 draw.

And the support isn’t just from Tunisians. Fans waving Palestinian flags have been following Tunisia, and there are also supporters of the squad from Egypt and Algeria. Tunisia’s team bus was mobbed by red-clad fans upon arrival in Qatar last week.

“We know the value of our Tunisian supporters in Doha, and the Tunisian diaspora,” coach Jalel Kadri said. “This gives us a strong morale boost.”

France leads the group with three points, Tunisia and Denmark are next with one point each and Australia trails with none.

Tunisia is seeking to advance from the group stage for the first time in its sixth World Cup appearance, while Australia has only reached the last 16 once – in 2006 – in five previous trips to football’s biggest event.

“There’s a bit more pressure because Australia have nothing to lose now. It’s like a final for them,” Tunisia defender Mohamed Drager said. “We need to be ready.”

Tunisia’s spirit is embodied by combative midfielder Assa Ladouni, who earned player of the match honours against Denmark in his first career World Cup match.

Ladouni set the tone in the very first minute when he stripped Denmark playmaker Christian Eriksen of the ball with an aggressive sliding tackle – then stood up and pumped his arms, gesturing to the crowd to get even more fired up.

“It’s important to come at the game with a lot of determination,” Ladouni said. “This is the World Cup, it’s not a small competition. It’s also important to show (the fans) we are so determined.”

Poland wary of Saudi surprise

Poland boss Czeslaw Michniewicz is aware of the threat Saudi Arabia poses to his side on Saturday after their shock 2-1 victory over Argentina.

However, Michniewicz highlighted in his press conference his belief that Poland have the right tactics to win as well as backing his captain Robert Lewandowski despite the star forward’s penalty miss against Mexico.

“Of course, the line-up is already clear. We know our tactics,” said Michniewicz. “Of course, we know the meaning of this game (against Saudi Arabia). Our draw with Mexico still gives us a chance to progress from the group. However, it is also difficult to live with one point.

“We are fully aware of the fact that the match with Saudi Arabia comes after their memorable win in the previous game (over Argentina). We know it is challenging.

“We do not focus so much about someone being favourite or not. We need to be prepared. It is going to be an interesting game (against Saudi Arabia). We will do everything to give the best performance that we can. We cannot promise anything.”

On whether Lewandowski would take Polish penalties moving forward, Michniewicz insisted that he backed his player, and that it would be the Barcelona striker that decides.

“I talked with every single player. And, when it comes to penalties, Robert is still our number one penalty-taker, said Michniewicz.

“As a striker, of course, he will make a decision about whether he is confident to take a penalty or he will pass it onto someone else. He feels ready to score for Poland.”

Lewandowski is still searching for his first World Cup goal after Guillermo Ochoa saved his 58th-minute penalty as Poland and Mexico played out a goalless draw in their Group C opener at Stadium 974 on Tuesday.

Lloris hopes France can learn from Denmark Nations League defeats

France started the World Cup with a bang against Australia, but Denmark will offer a much tougher challenge and could lead coach Didier Deschamps to make key tactical changes on Saturday.

The defending champions will secure qualification for the knockout stage with a game to spare in Group D if they win against a side who beat and outplayed them twice recently.

Denmark beat France 2-1 away in June and 2-0 at home in September in the Nations League. France captain and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris hopes his side can learn from Saturday’s opponents doing the double over them already this year.

“In June they had a few different players and there will be a few new (ones) tomorrow because the team may not be exactly the same as it was in June or in September,” said Lloris in his press conference.

“We’ve assessed those players and we of course learn from those experiences in the past, but Denmark will learn from them too. They can change their system from one match to the other and that can give us different types of difficulties.”

France boss Didier Deschamps still has a lot of thinking to do before he announces his line-up to the players a few hours before the match.

“The idea is to be dangerous, to create chances, to score goals and not to concede any,” he said. “Perfection doesn’t exist, but we try to get closer to it. This requires discussions with the players and complementarities between them. It is logical to have things to improve.”

Argentina hope to pay tribute to Maradona with a vital victory

Argentina will hunt for a crucial win against Mexico with extra motivation as they look to pay tribute to their footballing legend Diego Maradona on the second anniversary of his death.

Former team-mates of Maradona gathered at the World Cup in Qatar on Friday to pay tribute to the icon, reminiscing about brighter days as Argentina recover from their stinging upset by Saudi Arabia.

Considered one of the greatest football players in history, Maradona died aged 60 on November 25, 2020, after battling drug and alcohol abuse for years.

Despite his passing, Maradona remains very much present in the minds of Argentina fans and players. Many continue to wear his jersey, sing about his “Hand of God” goal against England in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup and furiously debate whether comparisons to Lionel Messi are even appropriate.

Messi, possibly in his final World Cup at 35, converted a penalty kick in the Saudi Arabia defeat. The Argentina captain described it as a huge blow and pledged that they would regroup for their Group C match against Mexico on Saturday.

Messi had told FIFA ahead of the Qatar tournament that it was “strange, different” not to see Maradona in the tribunes or the “people going crazy when he appears.” He said he felt Maradona would always “be present somewhere.”

Maradona played in four World Cups from 1982 to 1994 and was the coach of the national team in 2010. Some of his best – and worst – moments came at the World Cup, from the “Hand of God” goal against England in 1986 to his failed doping test that got him expelled from the tournament in 1994.

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said the date of Maradona’s death was “a very sad day for everyone.”

“Tomorrow we will hope to bring some joy to Maradona if he is looking down at us from the sky. That’s the most important thing for us. Every time we see images of him, it’s unbelievable he is not here with us.”

It’s already a strange World Cup for Argentina even without Maradona.

Team news

France full-back Benjamin Pavard was often outpaced on the right side of the defence against Australia, which could lead Didier Deschamps to making the extreme decision of bringing in central defender Jules Kounde.

Up front, Olivier Giroud, Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele should retain their spots, but more will be asked of them in terms of defensive work.

Barcelona’s Dembele, notably, will need to strike a better balance between offence and defence.

“He has improved a lot on this aspect because he has greater demands at club level,” said Deschamps.

“It’s more about positioning to make fewer efforts. In fact, against Australia there were a couple of situations where he was a bit off, I told him, and he corrected it.”

Argentina boss Scaloni has confirmed Messi will be fit for the Mexico clash.

The Paris Saint-Germain star allegedly opted to train away from the rest of the first-team squad on Thursday at their training base at the Qatar University campus in Doha.

However, Scaloni has confirmed that Messi is well both “physically and morally” for the must-win match.

Opta stats

Poland vs Saudi Arabia

• Saudi Arabia have lost nine of their 10 FIFA World Cup games against European nations, with the exception being a 1-0 win over Belgium in 1994. They’ve lost each of their last eight such games, while failing to score a single goal in any of the last seven.
• 17% of Poland’s games at the World Cup have finished goalless (6/35), the highest percentage of any team to play at least 15 games at the tournament. They last played out consecutive draws in the finals in 1982 against Italy and Cameroon – which were both goalless.
• Poland’s Robert Lewandowski remains without a goal in four World Cup appearances, attempting 11 shots in this time while also missing a penalty against Mexico last time out. In major tournaments overall (World Cup/EUROs), Lewandowski’s next match will be his 16th for Poland, which would be behind only Wladislaw Zmuda (21) and Grzegorz Lato (20) for the nation.

Argentina vs Mexico

• Argentina are unbeaten in their last 10 meetings with Mexico in all competitions (W7 D3) since a 1-0 loss in the 2004 Copa América.
• Argentina have lost four of their last six World Cup matches (W1 D1), as many as they had in their previous 25 in the competition (W16 D5). They’ve lost their last two games at the tournament, only losing three in a row once before (between 1930 and 1958).
• After drawing their opener at the 2022 World Cup 0-0 against Poland, Mexico could fail to win both of their opening two matches of an edition of the tournament for the first time since 1978, when they lost all three of their group games.
• Lionel Messi has scored in each of his last five appearances for Argentina in all competitions – only once has he scored in six in a row, doing so between November 2011 and September 2012. His next goal will be his eighth at the World Cup (level with Diego Maradona and Guillermo Stabile), behind only Gabriel Batistuta (10) for Argentina in the competition.

Tunisia vs Australia

• Australia are facing African opposition at the FIFA World Cup for just the second time (18th match overall) – they drew 1-1 with Ghana in 2010 in the other.
• Against Denmark last time out, Tunisia kept just their second clean sheet in their 16 World Cup games -both of their shutouts have been in goalless draws (also against Germany in 1978).
• Australia have kept just one clean sheet in 17 World Cup matches; no side to play 10+ matches at the tournament have a lower such ratio (6%, level with Saudi Arabia).

France vs Denmark

• France have won each of their last five World Cup games; they have never won six in a row at the finals, with the last nation to do so being Spain in 2010.
• Denmark have kept a clean sheet in three of their last five World Cup games, just one fewer than they’d managed in their first 16 games in the competition (four). However, they’ve also failed to score in two of their last three at the World Cup, as many times as in their first 18.
• France have scored four goals in both of their last two World Cup games, the 2018 final against Croatia and on MD1 this year against Australia. The last side to score 4+ goals in three straight World Cup games were Hungary in 1954 (run of four).
• 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 ever created more in a single World Cup match for Denmark.