…AUSTRALIA BEATS CANADA 1-0 TO QUALIFY FOR NEXT ROUND.
By Eniola Olatunji
The Carthage Eagles of Tunisia on Wednesday added to the stings of world cup shockers when the North Africans defeated defending champions, Les Bleus of France by a lone goal in the third round of Group D matches but the great effort was a nullity as it was swallowed by superior showing of rival teams.
Wahbi Khazri got a pass from Aissa Laiouni in the 58th minute to score for Tunisia. France rested six of their regular players since that knew the team had qualified for the next round. It was the first time in five meetings that Tunisia would beat France. They played 1-1 twice in 2010 and 2002 but France won 3-1 in 2008. In 1998 world cup France thrashed Tunisia 4-3.
Antoine Griezmann almost neutralized the upset as he scored a late goal for France in 90+8 minute but it was ruled offside by the new automated machine from The VAR room supervised by Abdullahi Al Marri of Qatar.
US born Matthew Conger of New Zealand who handled the Tunisia versus France Match is familiar with Nigeria. He handled the 2018 world cup match between Nigeria and Iceland that Nigeria won 2-0. He had given Iceland a penalty kick that was lost. At 2016 Olympics, he handled two group stage matches; Algeria versus Poland and Sweden versus Nigeria.
In the other group match, Australia surprised Denmark with a lone goal victory scored by Matthew Lechie in the 60th minute which was the actual goal that sent Tunisia out of the Qatar world cup because a draw in that match may have ushered Tunisia into the round of 16.
Denmark defeated Australia 3-1 in 2007; lost 0-1 in 2010; won 2-0 in 2012 and in group G of 2018 world cup they both played 1-1.
In the first round of Group D, Denmark and Tunisia played goalless; France walloped Australia 4-1. In the second round matches, Tunisia lost to Australia 0-1 and France beat Denmark 2-1.
At the end of proceedings, France topped Group D with 6 points and +3 goals difference; Australia was second with 6 points and -1 goals difference; Tunisia placed 3rd with 4 points and zero goals balance while Demark was 4th with a point and -2 goals difference.
A peep into available round of 16 fixtures shows Netherlands will play USA on Saturday at 4pm; at 8pm Australia will meet Winner of Group C.
On Sunday, France will meet the Runners-up Group C at 4pm while England and Senegal will slug it out at 8pm on Sunday.
Tomorrow Thursday at 4 pm Group F will be decided. Croatia will play Belgium and Canada will try Morocco for size in the matches to be played simultaneously.
Also tomorrow at 8pm in Group E, Japan will trade tackles with La Roja of Spain while Costa Rica will operate on the German Machine in a star match.
Eniola Olatunji reporting.
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