FIFA World Cup 2022: How Tunisia’s compact defence and dangerous counterattacks limited Denmark’s attacks – tactical analysis

Denmark played against Tunisia during the third day of the FIFA World Cup 2022 at the beautiful Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar and the match ended with a 0-0 draw which seemed like a win for the Tunisians, since any point against a powerful team like Denmark will be very useful later in the race for a second spot.

This draw gave hope and confidence to the Tunisian players as it showed that they are capable of qualifying for the knockout phase if they keep playing with the same discipline and determination in their next two games against Australia and France, even though the mission is still complicated.

In fact, both teams are in Group D which also includes France and Australia and that explains how tricky the group can be. All teams in the group are capable of creating surprises, either positive or disappointing ones, and Tunisia created a half-positive one with this draw since it was not expected at all.

On the other side, it is safe to say that Denmark lost two important points and were not at their best during this match as they also risked losing it. The team struggled to reach Tunisia’s goal, especially during the first half and were not able to score during the second half despite being more dangerous up front. Denmark’s attacks were most of the time predictable and slow and Tunisia’s defensive organisation made their mission even more complicated.

Moreover, finishing issues from both sides prevented the two teams from scoring, knowing that both of them had disallowed goals and created some dangerous goalscoring opportunities, which means that chance creation was not really the problem. This result will oblige Denmark to start the next match with extreme determination to win against France to not reduce their qualification chances and keep themselves in the run before meeting Australia. Denmark proved that they are able to beat a team like France as they won against the same team twice earlier this year.

In this tactical analysis, we will explore why both teams failed to score and how Tunisia’s defensive tactics helped them limit Denmark’s attacking danger. But first, the analysis will start with the introduction of both line-ups.

Lineups

Denmark started this match according to the 3-5-2 formation with Kasper Schmeichel as a goalkeeper, Joachim Andersen, Milan’s Simon Kjær and Barcelona’s Andreas Christensen as centre-backs, Tottenham’s Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Thomas Delaney and Manchester United’s Christian Eriksen as central midfielders, Rasmus Kristensen and Atalanta’s Joakim Mæhle on the wings, while Andreas Skov Olsen and Kasper Dolberg formed the attacking duo.

On the other side, Tunisia opted for the 3-4-3 formation with Aymen Dahmen as a goalkeeper, Dylan Bronn, Yassine Meriah and Montassar Talbi in defence, Ellyes Skhiri and Aïssa Laïdouni as central midfielders, Ali Abdi and Mohamed Dräger as wing-backs, Youssef Msakni and Anis Ben Slimane on both wings while Issam Jebali was the team’s striker.

Denmark and Tunisia’s first-half tactics and issues

Both teams struggled to score in this match despite creating numerous goalscoring opportunities and being dangerous at key moments. Denmark shot nine times with five attempts on target while Tunisia shot 11 times with only one attempt on goal. This confirms the fact that both teams created chances and reached the box, yet, the finishing was not as good as needed especially from Tunisia since most of their shots went off target. For instance, this first real dangerous attempt from Dräger was a very suitable goalscoring chance for Tunisia as it could have changed the rhythm of the match if it went in. But unfortunately for them, the shot went out by a few centimetres.