FIFA WORLD CUP 2018

FIFA WORLD CUP 2018 – Peru vs Denmark PREVIEW




Two nations who are expected to be fighting for the 2nd place in the group. It already is a must win for both teams, or at least must not lose. Both Peru and Denmark are relatively evenly matched sides and have good players who will cause everyone problems during the world cup, Denmark might be slightly favoured, but Peru are no joke as proven when they got out of the south American qualifiers over Chile and Ecuador.

PERU

Peru have qualified to this world cup as a surprise to many people, qualifying from a very tough south American continent. Peru have really started to become successful ever since they hired their coach Ricardo Gareca in 2015. Ever since then Peru went from one of the worst teams in the continent to one of the better by being a semi finalist in Copa America, knocking out Brazil and also reaching the world cup. Peru have a good attacking side, their main man being the experienced creative Jefferson Farfan who has had some really good years for his nation and is coming off of a decent season in Russia. Another key player will be their striker Paolo Guerrero, one of their star me up front scoring 6 goals in the qualifiers. He was supposed to miss the world cup but his doping ban was lifted and it’s a huge lift for Peruvians coming into this world cup. The link up between Farfan and Guerrero is definitely one to watch out and also their midfielder Christian Cueva is going to be massively important because he’s the engine of their midfield, he’s everywhere on the pitch. Peru’s weakness is height and although in the qualifiers nobody real had target men to cause Peru problems, they’ll definitely have to deal with that against European sides and a lack of height could cost Peru against Denmark who have a tall team. Peru love to score goals, but could be leaky at the back as seen over the past couple of years.

Peru as mentioned already had to go through a gruelling south American qualifying campaign. It took them all the way until the last game to clinch the playoff spot from which they qualified. Peru finished 5th in the south American qualifiers, beating out Chile just on goal difference as Peru had +1 and Chile had -1. On the last day Peru scored a late equaliser against Colombia to pick up the point that elevated them to 5th and got help from Brazil as they beat Chile 3-0 which gave Peru the 5th place, it was truly a rollercoaster ride until the end. Peru was the 3rd highest scoring team with 27, but they also let in 26 goals themselves which proves my point that they can score, but are slightly leaky at the back. Peru then had to play New Zealand over two legs to qualify and beat them 2-0 on aggregate drawing the 1st leg 0-0 and then taking care of business at home winning 2-0. The front 4 of Guerrero, Farfan, Flores and Cueva was the biggest key in their success.

Just before the world cup, Peru played three friendlies and continued to show great form. They won two games and drew one keeping 3 clean sheets and scoring 5 goals. Peru beat Scotland 2-0, Saudi Arabia 0-3 and picked up decent draw against Sweden 0-0. It’s definitely a good way to go into the world cup and by playing Sweden they pretty much played a team on Denmark’s level so they’ll be prepared for that type of opposition pretty well, plus if we go back a couple months Peru beat Croatia 2-0 and dominated Iceland 3-1 which just shows that they are simply playing great football. Overall looking at Peru, everything looks fine with them coming into the world cup.

DENMARK

Denmark are a solid all around team, with a players who all have to offer different things. Denmark are going into this world cup with expectations to advance further into the tournament. The Danish biggest strength is their star man Christian Eriksen. Eriksen is a fantastic footballer, one of the best midfielders in the world, he pretty much runs the midfield for Tottenham and Denmark, he actually even elevates his game for Denmark scoring many more goals for them than he normally does. Other than Eriksen, Denmark’s other danger man is Sisto. Sisto is a quick player with solid dribbling and can take players one on one and could create chances for himself. Denmark have a solid defence too led by their young star Christensen, Denmark don’t tend to leak goals and are well organised. Denmark’s weakness would be the fact that Eriksen might sometimes be the focal point way too much, other than him the Danish midfield does lack quality as nobody else really creates for them and in that case Eriksen has pretty much have to do all of the attacking work and if he’s not on his game, it could be very bad for Denmark because other than Eriksen, only their winger Sisto can really create and if these two get shut down then their strikers wont really have opportunities to score and Denmark’s strikers are slightly suspect themselves, Jorgensen not done much on the international level and neither has Cornelius.

Denmark had a very interesting and tough road to the world cup. They were drawn with Poland Montenegro Romania Armenia and Kazakhstan. Denmark were literally battling for the 2nd place with Montenegro as Poland separated themselves early, meanwhile the bottom 3 sides didn’t put that much pressure. It went down until the last two games between Denmark and Montenegro. With 2 games to go Denmark were actually tied with Montenegro and had to play them away from home and needed to avoid a loss, however led by their star man Eriksen, Danes did one better and won 0-1 which helped them secured 2nd place. However the 2nd place meant Denmark would have to go into the playoffs and face a good Ireland side. They drew the 1st leg at home 0-0 and went down early in Ireland and were put under pressure again, however Danes struck 5 goals and won the game 1-5 against Ireland in one of their best performances over the recent years with Eriksen scoring the hattrick.

Denmark played against two good sides in their preparation to the world cup drawing 0-0 against Sweden just like Peru and then beating Mexico 2-0. It was an impressive showing from Denmark to beat Mexico who I’d argue are even better than their opponent in the opener at the world cup in Peru. Danes are coming into this world cup in good form and will look to start off with a win in a game which probably decides who gets 2nd place and advances to R16.

What to Expect From The Game

I think we can expect a good game here. Peru have 4 solid attackers and don’t lack quality, Denmark have Eriksen and Sisto who will find spaces and try to expose the Peruvian defence. I don’t think we’re going to be lacking for goals, however I can see both teams getting cautious at times because a loss here for either team probably kills their hopes of advancing forward. Denmark will need someone other than Eriksen to create from the midfield and their strikers Jorgensen or Cornelius to take their chances, meanwhile Peru need to make sure Eriksen doesn’t get the ball in dangerous positions because they’ll be punished. It should be an overall exciting game, both teams will want to win and I think we can expect a draw here, but if we had to give an edge to a team it’d be Denmark because they will have the best player on the pitch.

ODDS – Decimal (WilliamHill)

Peru Win – 3.10

Draw – 3.10

Denmark Win – 2.40

KICK OFF – 16th June 2018 – 5pm UK Time