UEFA Nations League: Danish Test for 2021 Champions

France vs Denmark

France kick off their UEFA Nations League defence at the Stade de France on Friday night, and they have a tough opponent as Kasper Hjulmand’s Denmark are in town. 

Les Bleus won the second Nations League last year, and Didier Deschamps will use the competition to prepare his team for the Qatar World Cup. He has a star-studded squad, but Hjulmand brings a squad with immovable togetherness and no little talent, so it promises to be a fascinating battle as both teams target a winning start.   

France beat South Africa 5-0 on their last outing, while Denmark had a comfortable 3-0 victory over Serbia. Deschamps will expect his team to keep up their winning form, but the hosts will need to be somewhere near their best on Friday, or the Danes will strike.

Talking Points

Les Bleus are the team to beat

France will start the Qatar World Cup as one of the favourites and the UEFA Nations League 2022 betting odds also back Deschamps’ men as the best-equipped squad, certainly in Europe, to pick up silverware in every competition they enter.

The firepower of Les Bleus front line is frightening. Karim Benzema will lead the line and he is one of the two hottest strikers in Europe, alongside Robert Lewandowski. The Real Madrid man has won the La Liga and Champions League Golden Boots as his club picked up an illustrious double and, if that isn’t enough for the Danes to worry about, Benzema will start alongside Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe.

Still only 23, Mbappe, burst onto the global stage at the 2018 World Cup and he was not far behind Benzema and Lewandowski as he fired PSG to the Ligue 1 title. He has recently stunned the football world by extending his contract with the Parisiens instead of moving to Madrid to join Benzema, and Los Blancos will get a glimpse of what they are missing when the two link up on Friday.       

RB Leipzig’s Christopher Nkunku could make a start after a great season with Die Roten Bullen and Antoine Griezmann is also in the frame. Deschamps has even managed to give Olivier Giroud a rest after he helped AC Milan to a first Scudetto in 11 years. 

At the other end of the pitch Olympique Marseille’s young centre-back William Saliba  could be in line for a start alongside Sevilla’s Jules Kounde, in the absence of Dayot Upamecano, and he’s one to watch for the future. 

Eriksen set to play for Denmark

The biggest UEFA Nations League 2022 news in Denmark is the inclusion of Christian Eriksen in Hjulman’s squad. He has starred for Brentford in the last few months of the Premier League, helping the Bees to comfortable survival, after he joined them when they were in free-fall. This is Eriksen’s first competitive appearance for Denmark since he collapsed on the field at Euro 2020 and he has made a remarkable recovery, much to the delight of fans around the world.

The appearance of Eriksen is a huge boost to a team which has plenty more talent in its ranks. Two of Eriksen’s Brentford team-mates, Christian Norgaard and Mathias Jensen are in line for a call. Sampdoria’s 21-year-old striker Mikkel Damsgaard looks to have a bright future, and he will probably start alongside either Yussuf Poulsen or Kasper Dolberg.

Hjulmand will have his team fired up for this game. He says: “We are preparing for all the teams we are going to face. But I advise France to also prepare, because we have a very good team and we will be ready to fight.”

History

Denmark were the surprise European champions in 1992, but their hosts have been regular competition winners. France are World champions for the second time and twice winners of the European Championships.

And they are the current UEFA Nations League champions, beating Spain in the 2021 final thanks to goals from Mbappe and Benzema, after Mikel Oyarzabal had given La Roja an early lead.

These two nations have met each other nine times since 1984 and the French have come out on top on six occasions, losing twice and drawing once, in a goalless stalemate in their last meeting in 2018. 

France have won the last six, scoring 24 goals and conceding four, and they are unbeaten at home in nine games. Meanwhile, Denmark have won four and lost two of their last six matches.

Betting Tip

Les Bleus are at SBOTOP odds of 1.71 to open this campaign with a victory, while Denmark are priced at 4.46 and the draw is 3.30. I expect France to start with a win and, for a correct score-line, 1-0 is the most likely outcome at 5.03, with 2-0 at 6.76.

 

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