Denmark 0 France 0: Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud fail to fire as French finish top with Danes second with both sides booed off after bore draw
Group C's top two play out dull draw and record first stalemate of the World Cup 2018 as both nations wait to discover who they'll face in last-16
DREADFULLY dull Denmark and France reached the last 16 by serving up the worst game of the World Cup so far.
Both sides looked more than happy to take the point which guaranteed Les Bleus finished top and the Danes second.
But it made for incredibly boring fare for what turned out to be the first nil-nil of this summer’s tournament.
There had been expectations of a feisty encounter given the shots fired in the build-up.
Denmark boss Age Hareide last month claimed France were “nothing special”, that they “don’t have a leader like Zinedine Zidane to galvanise them” and questioned if Paul Pogba thinks only “about his haircuts”.
The 64-year-old backtracked on them yesterday, insisting his words had been taken out of context but by then the damage had been done.
Les Bleus coach Didier Deschamps branded the comments as “not particularly pleasant” in his pre-match press conference while confirming his squad were aware of them.
Yet for all Deschamps and Hareide’s insistence that they would not play for a draw, the evidence suggested the complete opposite.
The lack of ambition from both teams was startling.
Denmark are not the easiest on the eye anyway - despite having Christian Eriksen - and were in full lump-it forward mode.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE All the latest action, news, goals and gossip from the World Cup
LATEST WORLD CUP 2018 NEWS
But France offered next to nothing either with Antoine Griezmann once again failing to match the feats in Russia of his fellow world-class strikers Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Kane.
The nearest we came to a goal in an awful first 45 minutes was when former Cardiff flop Andreas Cornelius played an wonderfully-weighted ball from the left for Eriksen to attack in the box.
But just as the Tottenham man was about to pull the trigger, he was foiled by a combined challenge from Lucas Hernandez and keeper Steve Mandanda, whose appearance made him France’s oldest World Cup debutant ever at 33 years and 89 days.
If anything the second period was even worse.
Mandanda spilled a 30-yard free-kick from Eriksen but Denmark’s players were not quick enough to nip in for the rebound, summing up the dozy atmosphere.
Former Liverpool target Nabil Fekir came off the bench for Griezmann on 69 minutes and within seconds crashed a ball into the side netting.
It was the nearest the 78,011 crowd came to seeing a goal.
No wonder they were performing Mexican waves inside 20 minutes while loudly whistling and booing with 20 to go.
Fekir curled another from distance which forced Kasper Schmeichel, who time-wasted at every opportunity, comfortably pushed away.
In the end it was Mission Accomplished for both teams as they progressed as they wanted.
Denmark even managed to extend their unbeaten streak to 18 games.
But neither nation can expect any neutrals to be cheering them on for the rest of their time in Russia after such a mind-numbing match.