Denmark win World Cup opener after Peru miss penalty

Denmark have beaten Peru 1-0 in their first World Cup Group C game at the Mordavia Arena in Saransk.

Yussuf Poulsen scored the only goal of the game in the second half after Christian Cueva missed a penalty just before the break.

Peru were the better side during the opening 45 minutes and forced Kasper Schmeichel into a superb save from Andre Carrillo’s 20-yarder.

Jefferson Farfan came close on the half-hour mark when he was played in by Carrillo but Sevilla defender Simon Kjaer did well to block the shot.

Embed from Getty Images

The VAR was used to award Peru a penalty in first-half stoppage time. Poulsen pulled down Cueva but the Peru midfielder sent a horrific spot-kick well over the bar.

There was finally a goal in the 59th minute and it came against the run of play. A counter-attack found Christian Eriksen in space who played in Poulsen to finish low past Pedro Gallese.

Peru almost hit back instantly though when Edison Flores forced another save out of Schmeichel. Peru continued to attack and Alberto Rodriguez headed narrowly wide.

Embed from Getty Images

A huge chance came for Paolo Guerrero, who was about to head in from Carrillo’s cross but Poulsen came in to clear the ball away.

At the other end, Denmark had a rare chance to put the game to bed. Eriksen’s left-footer was palmed away by Gallese to keep his side in the game.

Peru continued to be on the front foot going into stoppage time but Cueva failed to hit the target with a looping volley from the left as Denmark claimed the three points.

Cover Photo: FIFA World Cup 2014 by Mariya Butd used under license by CC BY 2.0.

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.