Qatar 2022 | Group D: France and Denmark have ambitions to go far

Defending champions France and Denmark possess the obvious quality, and plenty of it, in Group D of the 2022 Fifa World Cup.

Tunisia can provide problems and Australia might lack known stars but are always feisty on a global stage.

France

The defending champions were not convincing in qualifying and have been iffy in the Uefa Nations League (UNL) too, but on paper remain a contender for best team in the world. Didier Deschamps goes to Qatar as the longest-serving coach at the tournament, the 54-year-old seeking a third World Cup in his now 10-year tenure having won one as a player (1998) and Russia 2018 as coach in a hugely decorated career in both professions.

France topped Uefa’s qualifying Group D with five wins and three draws (including against second-placed Ukraine twice and Bosnia-Herzegovina) from eight matches. Also defending champions in the UNL, France have battled to one win, two draws and three defeats in 2022-23. They survived a group of death at Euro 2020 but then were shocked by Switzerland on penalties in the last-16.

But their 18 goals scored and three conceded in the qualifiers signal this is a team of superstars all round. The class of players who scored most of those goals (Antoine Griezmann got six, Kylian Mbappé five and Karim Benzema three) reinforces that. Benzema won Fifa’s Ballon d’Or last week for his spectacular form in 2021-22, including 27 goals as Real Madrid won La Liga, and 15 as they clinched the Uefa Champions League. He shares the mantle of best striker in the world with another 34-year-old going to Qatar, Poland’s Robert Lewandowski.

Paul Pogba and the spectacular N'Golo Kanté in midfield, Raphaël Varane at centreback and veteran Hugo Lloris at goalkeeper add to the all-round quality. At the other end of the age spectrum to Benzema, Mbappé became a World Cup-winner at 19 in Russia, and at 23 has a target of establishing himself as the successor to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the world’s best player in his sights in Qatar.

Australia

Unlike their exciting Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka-led Socceroos coached by Guus Hiddink to the last-16 at Germany 2006, this is a pedestrian-looking Australia who squeezed through qualification.

Coach Graham Arnold’s side unsurprisingly easily topped Group B over Kuwait, Jordan and Nepal in Asia’s second round of qualifying. In the third round Australia (15 points) ended third in Group B behind Japan (22) and Saudi Arabia (23). They beat United Arab Emirates 2-1 on aggregate in the Asian playoff, and needed penalties (5-4) to edge out Peru in the inter-confederation playoff.

Striker Jamie Maclaren, 29, of Melbourne City is a four-time A-League top scorer and Verona’s Ajdin Hrustic, 26, provides the creativity in attacking midfield in a solid but unspectacular squad. The Aussies are potential wooden spoonists in Group D.

Denmark

Denmark were stronger than France in the Uefa qualifiers and are one of the teams who have given Les Bleus a tough time in the UNL, beating Deschamps’ team 2-0 in September, so could give the defending champions a run for their money for first place in Group D.

De Rød-Hvide (The Red and Whites) won nine and lost one game to top Uefa’s World Cup qualifying Group F with 27 points to Scotland’s 24. They have won four and lost two in the 2022-23 UNL. While their current form is strong, it was their run to the Covid-19-delayed Euro 2020 semifinals under 50-year-old coach Kasper Hjulmand last year, bowing out to England on a controversial penalty, that marks the current generation as one of Denmark’s best since the team that won Euro 1992.

They have plenty of all-round quality, are superbly organised and the manner in which the team rallied after star midfielder Christian Eriksen dramatically collapsed on the field in the Euro 2020 group game against Finland marks Denmark out as a bonded and fighting unit.

With Kasper Schmeichel (Nice) in goal; Eriksen (Manchester United) and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (Tottenham Hotspur) in midfield; and attackers Kasper Dolberg (Sevilla, two goals in the qualifying group stage), Andreas Skov Olsen (Club Brugge, five goals in the group stage) and Joakim Mæhle (Atalanta, five goals in the group stage), Denmark could even surpass their 1998 quarterfinal best placing.

Tunisia

There could be more than meets the eye to 50-year-old coach Jalel Kadri’s Carthage Eagles. Tunisia made tough work of Africa’s second round Group B, having to beat Zambia 3-1 on the final day to progress because they lost 1-0 to Equatorial Guinea in the second-last match.

A team with the second-best group stage defensive record — along with Uganda and South Africa — with two goals conceded went head-to-head with the side with the best record, Mali, who conceded none, in the playoffs. Tunisia edged a tight tie 1-0 on aggregate.

Tunisia are not thought of as one of Africa’s star-studded combinations going to Qatar. But Kadri — who replaced the coach he was assistant to, Mondher Kebaier, after the Eagles’ 1-0 Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinal exit to Burkina Faso in January — has some classy players going to the World Cup.

Ali Maaloul is the right-back who creates most of Egyptian giants Al Ahly’s play from that flank and Koln’s Ellyes Skhiri is the rock in midfield.

Youssef Msakni, now 31 and on the books of Al-Arabi Sports Club in Qatar, is the brains of a front line where Wahbi Khazri (Montpellier, three goals in the qualifying group stage) and Naim Sliti of Al-Ettifaq in the Saudi Pro League can unpick a defence.

Mostly it is their defensive organisation and ability to gain results under pressure that might make Tunisia the spanner in the works for France and Denmark in Group D.

* The Qatar 2022 Fifa World Cup kicks off on November 20 and the final is on December 18. TimesLIVE and TimesLIVE Premium will profile all eight groups, the tournament favourites, star players and five African teams over the coming weeks.