By The Numbers: Tunisia Draw First Game v Denmark

Tunisia played out a goalless draw against Denmark in their first Group D game at the FIFA World Cup 2022. Whilst semi-finalists at Euro 2020, Denmark were never spoken of as title contenders but definitely were expected to make it out of the group that contained current world champions France and Australia. For all their effort in this game, Tunisia will be pleased with the result – avoiding defeat may have left them to stand a chance of progressing with their next game coming against Australia on Saturday. For this 0-0 encounter, it was far from boring though. 

History

Tunisia had never beaten European opposition in 10 prior World Cup encounters, coming only as close as drawing four of their previous matches. Denmark on the other hand, were looking to remain unbeaten against teams from Africa at the World Cup – South Africa (1998 – 1:1), Nigeria (1998 – 4:1), Senegal (2002 – 1:1), Cameroon (2010 – 2:1) and Tunisia (2022 – 0:0). 

Statistical Game Overview

The Eagles of Carthage – were the better team across a number of statistical metrics, especially in the first half of the game and proved to be a challenge for Denmark to break down. The ball possession for Tunisia was low across the entirety of the match but it deeply depends on what you do with the ball that matters.

13 – Tunisia took two more shots than their opposition

1 – the accuracy of their shots on target was far lower than Denmark’s

0.96 – the overall value of their xG (1.65 xG) for the Danes

20 – the number of corners in the game (11 for Denmark, 9 for Tunisia)

7 – the number of tackles that Tunisia won in the first half – the most of any side (before the two later games had kicked off)

Match Turnaround

No more opportunities or shots presented themselves for the Tunisians post the 60-minute mark. It was around this time, midway through the second half that the Danes properly tested their opponents. The first big chance came from a corner in the 70th minute of play which met the head of Andreas Cornelius but ended up hitting the post.

The Tunisians held on for a very impressive point, despite a handball incident and monitor review for Denmark. There will be real belief in the Tunisian camp that they can get a result against Australia and possibly reach the knockout stages of a FIFA World Cup for the very first time.