ENGLAND squandered the chance to wrap up World Cup last-16 qualification early after being held to a bore draw by USA.The Three Lions were a shadow of themselves from the thrashing on Iran in their opener.
But on a more positive note, James Maddison has returned to training with the entire team ahead of England’s final group stage clash.
Elsewhere in Group B, Wales are in danger of crashing out after a 2-0 defeat to Iran – who scored their goals in the 99th and 101st minutes.
And there’s bad news for Brazilian superstar Neymar as he is set to MISS the rest of the group stages in the World Cup with an ankle injury.
Neymar, 30, went down injured and walked off the pitch in tears during Brazil’s 2-0 win over Serbia on Thursday night.
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Denmark v France line-ups
Here’s a reminder of tonight’s starting XIs with ten minutes until kick-off here in Doha.
DENMARK (3-4-3) Schmeichel; Andersen, Christensen, Nelsson; Kristensen, Hojbjerg, Eriksen, Maehle; Lindstrom, Cornelius, Damsgaard
FRANCE (4-3-3): Lloris; Kounde, Upamecano, Varane, T.Hernandez; Tchouameni, Griezmann, Rabiot; Dembele, Giroud, Mbappe.
REF: Szymon Marciniak (Poland)
Live from the ground
Greetings from the prefab Stadium 974, writes Mark Irwin, where the big question is can Olivier Giroud become France’s all-time top scorer?
He’s currently tied on 51 goals with Thierry Henry after his double in the 4-1 win against Australia and victory today will see France become the first team to qualify for the last 16.
Raphael Varane is playing his first game since straining a hamstring for Manchester United against Chelsa five weeks ago, with the unfortunate Ibrahima Konate dropping to the bench.
But it won’t be plain sailing for Les Bleus, who lost home and away against Denmark in the Nations League and have never been beaten three times in a year by the same team before.
Kasper Hjulmand has made four changes to the team held to a goalless draw by Tunisia in their opening Group D game.
I presume the ground is going to fill up because with half an hour to kick-off it’s less than a quarter full.
BY JORDAN DAVIES
THERE IS a feeling of déjà vu seeping into the USA camp.
Back in 2010, the Yanks were on the cusp of a familiar World Cup group stage exit having tied their opening two matches out in South Africa.
A 1-1 draw with England and 2-2 result against Slovenia meant only a win versus Algeria in their last outing would be enough to send them into the Last 16.
It was looking bleak until Landon Donovan’s heroics in injury time to not only send the United States through, but also top a World Cup group for the first time since 1930.
USA skipper Tyler Adams remembers Donovan’s winner well, watching it as an 11-year-old in his hometown of Wappinger, New York.
But if history is to repeat itself, Leeds midfielder Adams would prefer it without the drama.
Reminded of the similarities, Adams chuckled: “It is exciting. Hopefully not as dramatic as that goal. We don’t want to leave it until the end.
“We are in control of our own destiny, and we had to earn that. We know what we have to do. That’s important.
“But we definitely can’t get ahead of ourselves. We can’t go all out or you can dig yourselves a hole when it is against a good team. We will have to compete and be ready for that.
“I watched a little bit of [Iran’s win over Wales]. They competed and fought very, very hard. When you play against teams like that, it is hard to beat them.
“We need to mentally be tuned into that. It won’t be easy by any means.”
FRANCE VS DENMARK
The team news is in.
Here’s how the sides line up:
FRANCE (4-3-3): Lloris; Kounde, Upamecano, Varane, T.Hernandez; Tchouameni, Griezmann, Rabiot; Dembele, Giroud, Mbappe.
DENMARK (3-4-3) Schmeichel; Andersen, Christensen, Nelsson; Kristensen, Hojbjerg, Eriksen, Maehle; Lindstrom, Cornelius, Damsgaard
FT: Poland 2-0 Saudi Arabia
Poland picked up a big 2-0 win over Saudi Arabia with Robert Lewandowski finally breaking his World Cup duck at the Education City Stadium.
Czeslaw Michniewicz’s men struggled throughout the match against a red hot Saudi side but found an opening on 39 minutes with Piotr Zielinski.
Matty Cash found Przemyslaw Frankowski with a wonderful pass in midfield and got the ball back down the right which is where he delivered a wonderful low cross to Lewandowski, who teed up Zielinski.
Saudi Arabia, though got a penalty at the death after Krystian Bielik brought Saleh Alshehri down but Salem Aldawsari’s spot-kick was saved by Wojciech Szczesny who lunged to his bottom right corner and then denied the inconing Mohammed Alburayk with another stunning save.
Poland hit the post twice with Arkadiusz Milik and Lewandowski in their bid for a second to seal the win.
Saudi Arabia were solid throughout the match until a big error by Abdulelah Almalki who gave the ball away at the back and Lewandowski picked it up to beat Mohammed Alowais and score his first ever World Cup goal
Robert Lewandowski races off in celebration after ending his World Cup duckCredit: Getty
FRANCE VS DENMARK
Les Bleus can qualify for the knockout round of the World Cup with a win over Denmark in the group stages.
The French then continued their dominance on the international stage by securing a Nations League triumph in 2021.
But they now come up against a determined Denmark side who had a very impressive Euro 2020 despite the tragedy of Christian Eriksen collapsing on the pitch.
And the Danes are no strangers to grinding out a win against France as it something they have already achieved within the last calendar year.
We’ll have the team news very shortly ahead of the Group D clash.
GOAL – Poland 2-0 Saudi Arabia
That should be it now for the Saudis.
Despite dominating their second group clash against the Poles, Robert Lewandowski finally scores a World Cup goal!!!
There are only eight minutes of normal time remaining for the Middle East nation to pull off another miracle result.
BORE OFF
It’s official – England are the most boring team in World Cup history.
The Three Lions were held to a dismal 0-0 draw by the USA on Friday evening.
Accusations of England’s “boring” style of play have now been proved true.
Friday’s stalemate marked England’s 12th goalless draw at the World Cup – the most of any team in the tournament’s history.
The Three Lions have been held to a 0-0 draw by teams including; Brazil, Uruguay, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Costa Rica, Nigeria and Morocco in the past, but fans are now starting to grow more and more frustrated with the team’s apparent lack of ambition on the pitch.
FROM TOM BARCLAY – HT POLAND 1 SAUDI ARABIA 0
WOW, what a first half we have had here at the Education City Stadium.
The Saudis started like a house on fire, roared on by their deafening, green-and-white army in the stands.
Poland resorted to kicking them, becoming the first World Cup side to earn three bookings in the first 20 minutes for two decades.
But then the European side began to grow more into the game and on 39 minutes they went ahead.
Aston Villa defender Matty Cash overlapped and found Robert Lewandowski in the box, who was pushed wide by the goalkeeper but managed to cut it back for Piotr Zielinski to fire into the roof of the net.
It momentarily silenced the raucous crowd, but they were soon going nuts again when Brazilian ref Wilton Sampaio awarded a penalty, having checked the pitchside monitor, after Birmingham’s Krystian Bielik had caught Saleh Al-Shehri on the ankle.
Salem Al-Dawsari, nicknamed ‘the Tornado’ and dubbed the Middle East’s best player, then saw his spot-kick saved brilliantly by Wojciech Szczesny, diving low to this right.
The ex-Arsenal stopper then did even better to turn over Mohammed Al-Burayk’s goalbound follow-up.
Breathless stuff, with hopefully more to follow after the break.
And remember, the Saudis were 1-0 down to Lionel Messi’s Argentina…
Saudi Arabiaâs Salem Al-Dawsari had has his penalty saved by Polandâs Wojciech SzczesnyCredit: Reuters
HAVE ZLAT
Croatia boss Zlatko Dalic went on an incredible Jose Mourinho-style rant accusing Canada’s John Herdman of lacking respect after his F-word taunt.
Following their narrow 1-0 loss to Belgium, Canada head coach Herdman said: “I told [the players] they belong here and we’re going to ‘F’ Croatia. That’s as simple as it gets.”
Ahead of their Group F clash today, Dalic said: “The Croatian team deserves respect from everyone. We have proven that by the way we played and our conduct during the World Cup.
“Since the very beginning, we have deserved respect and dignity. We have two medals in the last 30 years. Only Germany and France have such achievements.
“We respect everyone equally so we expect opposing teams to respect us. We are worthy of their respect. The Canadians must have respect for us.
“This way of putting words together is not a sign of respect. We are [World Cup] runners-up.
“We are second in the world and we are worthy of respect in the way we play, behave and respect all others. They are the reasons why we are worthy of respect.
“I shall not focus on the comments. We will be prepared and fit and demonstrate respect for Canada.”
Zlatko Dalic is fired up to lead his Croatia side out against Canada tomorrow
FROM DAN KING IN DOHA
David Beckham is not the only former England captain with a big presence in Qatar.
Steven Gerrard is a regular voice on TV – just not as a pundit.
The dulcet tones of the former Liverpool and Three Lions skipper are a feature of almost every ad break on beIN Sports as he promotes the vehicles of an official FA sponsor.
RIP
A Wales football fan who travelled to Qatar for the World Cup has died.
Kevin Davies, from Pembrokeshire, fell ill after making the 3,300-mile trip to the Middle East nation with his son and friends to watch Rob Page’s side compete.
The 62-year-old is reported to have been rushed to Hamad General Hospital, in Doha, following Wales’ match against Iran, where he later died.
It is understood Mr Davies suffered a medical incident and did not attend the 2-0 defeat but instead remained at his apartment after feeling ill.
His family and friends are being helped by fan group Football Supporters’ Association Cymru, as well as UK Government officials in Doha.
KICK-OFF POLAND 0 SAUDI ARABIA 0
The Education City Stadium is hosting the World Cup clash between Poland and Saudi Arabia.
Captain Robert Lewandowski led the Polish national team to the pitch, while Salem Aldawsari dons the Saudi armband.
The two teams line up on the grass for their respective national anthems and have now got the match underway.
Follow all of the action via Sun Sport’s live blog.
FROM MARTIN LIPTON IN DOHA
FIFA have been caught up in a new huge international political incident after Saudi Arabia BLOCKED World Cup TV coverage for their OWN fans.
Qatar-based broadcaster beIN created an official streaming channel, TOD, to broadcast the tournament across the entire Middle East and North Africa Arabic-speaking region.
But Saudi authorities stepped in to block the signal from being received by fans in the country, leaving Fifa scrambling to try to bring a compromise.
TOD was launched in Saudi in January and was fully operational – until an HOUR before the start of the opening ceremony last Sunday.
But the Saudi Ministry of Media publicly confirmed it had ended access to the service inside the country.
It is not a total block of the World Cup, as 22 of the 64 matches at the tournament are available in the country on a free-to-air service.
Millions of Saudi fans, though, have been denied the chance to see most of a World Cup taking place in its neighbouring country.
And that will have them scrambling to watch their side take on Poland right now!
TUNING IN
The biggest UK audience of the World Cup so far watched England v USA on ITV1 last night with a peak of 18 million viewers tuning in to see the Three Lions held to a draw in their second match of the tournament.
The audience figures, which encompass all viewers across television and non-TV devices, were higher than the launch of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, making it ITV1’s most watched programme this year.
ITV had its biggest day of the year for streaming, and third biggest on record, with 18m streams.
It attracted the biggest 16-34 audience on any channel this year, with 2.0m and 85% watching last night.
Across television, an average audience of 11.9m watched the overall coverage of England v USA, with an average of 15.1m watching the full match.
MADD FOR IT
James Maddison trained today as England received a boost ahead of the crunch clash with Wales.
The star has not been fit enough to train fully so far in Qatar – let alone get on the pitch against Iran or USA.
He picked up a knee injury for Leicester against West Ham two weeks ago, forcing him to sit out and do his own individual work for the first two weeks of camp.
Today is the first time he has trained on the pitch in more than a week.
But after the struggles against the Americans last night, his involvement in training will come as a welcome sight for Three Lions fans crying out to see their team deliver at the World Cup following the drab draw yesterday.
James Maddison returned to the training pitch for England todayCredit: Richard Pelham / The Sun
FROM TOM BARCLAY IN QATAR
FIRST Messi, now for Lewandowski.
Saudi Arabia are still the story of the tournament after their sensational 2-1 victory over Lionel Messi’a Argentina on Tuesday.
Today they turn their attention to Poland, who have their own world-class striker in Robert Lewandowski, at the Education City stadium.
Saudi boss Herve Renard, previously of Cambridge United and whose grandparents are Polish, maintains that the win over the Argies will count for nothing if his side cannot progress out of the group.
Poland meanwhile were heavily criticised back home after their opening-game stalemate against Mexico, in which Lewandowski missed a penalty.
It means the great man is still to net at a World Cup, despite banging in 76 goals in 135 games for his country.
Manager Czeslaw Michniewicz is sure the barren run will end soon and that Lewy will remain on spotkicks.
He also says some of his team may suffered “stage fright” against the Mexicans but vowed they will not be jittery today.
‘CRYING’
Australian match-winner Mitchell Duke struggled to hold back the emotions after securing a 1-0 win over Tunisia.
He said: “No words, I’m going to start crying because it’s such a big moment.
“For me and my family, my supporters, it’s the best feeling in the world but I’m trying not to get too caught up in it because the job’s not done yet.
“We’ve got one more game to try and get out of the group.”
His header midway through the first half was enough to secure the Aussie’s their first win at the World Cup 2022.
He added: “Honestly, the best moment of my life to date in my football career. I’m just so happy and proud of the boys.
“People have sacrificed so much to be here – it’s just the best feeling in the world.”
POLAND VS SAUDI ARABIA
The team news is in for the Group C clash.
Here’s how the sides will line-up:
SAUDI ARABIA: 21 Al-Owais; 12 Abdulhamid, 4 Al-Amri, 5 Al-Bulayhi, 6 Al-Burayk; 8 Al-Malki, 9 Albrikan, 16 Al-Naji, 23 Kanno; 10 S. Al-Dawsari, 11 Al-Shehri
POLAND: 1 Szczesny; 2 Cash, 15 Glik, 14 Kiwior, 18 Bereszynski; 24 Frankowski, 10 Krychowiak, 6 Bielik, 20 Zielinski; 7 Milik, 9 Lewandowski
FT: Tunisia 0-1 Australia
The men from down under have won their first World Cup match since 2010.
Great performance from Graham Arnold’s men.
It was Mitchell Duke’s header that proved to be the difference.
Tunisia disappoint their hoards of travelling fans.
Credit: AFP
FROM DAN KING IN DOHA
Jack Grealish is taking heart from England’s Euros experience after the bore draw against the USA
The Manchester City star, a second-half substitute on Friday night, said: “I don’t think anyone will get too down after that.
“We wanted to win the game but when you look back to the Euros we had exactly the same situation and we got to the final that time around so hopefully we can do the same thing.
“We had a good start against Croatia. Likewise here, against Iran.
“We had a game against Scotland where you know it’s going to be difficult because of the little rivalry.
“I felt a little bit like that against the USA, one of them games where there’s a bit of pride or whatever.”
It will be more of the same in the Battle of Britain against Wales.
Grealish added: “Tuesday will be the big one now that everyone is itching to play in.
“Hopefully we can go and get the job done.”
ENN BOOST
It is good news for Ecuador regarding striker Enner Valencia – who scored again against Holland making it three in two games.
He finished the game on the bench with an ice pack on his knee but is now expected to be ok for the final group game.
He celebrated his goal against Holland by pretending to scribble on a note pad in response to media in Ecuador who suggested the 33-year-old, who had spells at West Ham and on loan to Everton, should not be at this World Cup.
Ecuador Coach Gustavo Alfaro said: “I told him he would be successful during this World Cup. He is going through such a good spell.”
Credit: Getty
SECOND HALF
Tunisia get the action back underway as they trail Australia 1-0.
They have had 17 shots at this World Cup so far, but have only hit the target with one of those.
Will that record improve second half?
We are about to find out…
GATHERING MOMENTUM
Virgil van Dijk insists the Dutch will come good despite two awful performances at the World Cup so far.
Holland look set to top their group with four points in the bag and the already eliminated host Qatar to come.
But it has been uninspiring stuff from Louis van Gaal’s men to get into this position on the evidence of the 2-0 victory over Senegal and 1-1 draw with Ecuador.
But Van Dijk said: “There aren’t many teams who have been perfect so far.
“It is a tournament, many teams are just trying to grow into it.
“Hopefully before our next match we can find some form and consistency that is needed in a tournament. Every team needs time, and we are no different.”
HT TUNISIA 0 AUSTRALIA 1
Mitchell Duke’s header is proving to be the difference at the break in Qatar.
It is a deserved lead for the Socceroos.
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