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50 min: Mbappe plays the ball inside from the left towgards Dembele. Hit hard, the ball ricochets off the corner and bounces in the air and out of nowhere, Mbappe tries to slide it past Schmeichel. He doesn’t have enough room to maneuver and the goalkeeper is calm.
48 min: Christian Eriksen curls in a wonderful ball on the edge of France’s six-yard box, but Martin Braithwaite can’t get anywhere near it.
47 min: Andreas Christensen clears the ball with a farming hoof towards the touchline as Mbappe and Rabiot try to link up in a crowded Danish penalty area. Get it going, Andreas! Get it going!
Second half: France – Denmark 0-0
46 min: Play resumes and Denmark have made a change. Martin Braithwaite replaces Andreas Cornelius.
An analysis of the first half: “Denmark are wearing exactly the same colors as Poland in the previous game,” writes Ben Kybett. “That’s not helpful for those of us in a twilight winter football fog struggling to keep up with what day it is, let alone which teams we’re supposed to be watching. Sure in these days of third equipment, third alternates and fourth teams, something must be done”.
Middle: France – Denmark 0-0
Pee! All is square on the break where the lock remains unbroken so far.
45+2 min: We are in the second of the three minutes of added time at the end of a very entertaining first half. France have dominated but have yet to score, although Olivier Giroud will feel he should have taken at least one of the few decent chances that came his way. Currently joint record holder with Thierry Henry with 51, he is one goal away from becoming France’s all-time top goalscorer.
45 min: French fans on the ground perform a rousing rendition of La Marseillaise. Is there any other kind of interpretation when it comes to this particular hymn?
45 min: Nelsson receives treatment but is cleared to continue for now.
42 min: Jules Kounde is booked for grabbing Victor Nelsson on the ankle as the Frenchman dived to win back a ball he had just lost control of. It’s a nasty challenge. Kounde stepped on the Danish defender’s ankle quite hard.
39 min: Dembele picks out Olivier Giroud in acres of space around the penalty spot with a clearance from the byline. With the goal at his mercy and only Schmeichel to beat, Giroud fires the ball over the bar.
37 min: Olivier Giroud beats Victor Nelsson to head home a deflected volley from Mbappe’s cross. He dives at the defender through the air and sends his effort wide. Kasper Schmeichel moans at the referee, claiming Nelsson was fouled by the big French forward. I’m not sure he’s right – Giroud just “wanted it more”, as they say, and attacked the ball much more aggressively.
35 min: Jesper Lindstrom plays Cornelius in behind with a well-weighted ball. The Danish striker times his run perfectly, makes a few passes and unleashes a shot. Wide, but not wide.
32 min: Griezmann links up with Giroud on the inside left, runs towards the byline and, with no team-mate in the penalty area to target, fires a shot from a very tight angle. Schmeichel blocks with his feet. The ball breaks to Dembele, who heads Tchouameni, whose shot is blocked.
30 min: Mbappe crosses from the left side of the Danish penalty area to the right. Jules Kounde controls the ball and unleashes a low diagonal which is blocked by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and rolls to the feet of Schmeichel.
29 min: Dayot Upamecano breaks a gut to prevent the ball from going out for a corner, slides and manages to send it to a service. He receives great joy from those in the crowd of a gal.
27 min: Jesper Lindstrom tries to send a cross into the French penalty area from the right, but can only win a throw-in from Theo Hernandez.
25 min: Joachim Anderson plays a long ball from deep towards the byline for Mikkel Damsgaard to chase down. The Danish winger gets to the ball in time to keep it, but his first touch is poor and sends him offside for a shot on goal.
24 min: Another booking. This time the card is shown to Andreas Cornelius, who “left one” to Olivier Giroud.
21 min: Kasper Schmeichel saves well, deflecting an Adrien Rabiot header.
20 min: Andreas Christensen is booked for bringing down Mbappe as the France striker sprints out of his own half, turns on his afterburners and threatens to burst through a gap between two defenders. Should it be red? Probably not: the two defenders at Mbappé’s height were theoretically “covering”, although one suspects they would have been ahead of the French striker a millisecond later.
Mbappé falls to the ground after a tackle by Christensen. Photograph: Abir Sultan/EPA
Updated at 16:30 GMT
18 min: Theo Hernández cuts in from the left, gets forward down the middle and tries a deep pass to where Giroud was expected to make a quick run. Unfortunately for him, old Ollie wasn’t on the same wavelength.
16 min: France continue to keep the Danes trapped inside their own half, increasing the pressure.
14 min: France are very much in the ascendancy at this point in the game. Ousmane Dembele sends a cross from the right to the far post, where Joachim Anderson leaps in front of Olivier Giroud and puts the French forward out.
12 min: From the corner, the ball is spun to the crossbar, where Raphael Varane directs a downward header towards goal. With Kasper Schmeichel well beaten, Joachim Maehle shows ninja reflexes to remove a boot and keep him from crossing the line.
11 min: Franc Franc, deflected to the left. Antoine Griezmann curls the ball into Denmark’s penalty area, where Andreas Cornelius sends it into the corner with a fine defensive header.
7 min: Playing a nice one-two with Mbappe, Theo Hernandez crosses into the Danish penalty area. Rabiot knocks it down the middle from the far post, prompting Olivier Giroud to pull the trigger. Before he can slot the ball towards goal from six or seven yards, Andreas Christensen takes it off his toe. good defense
6 min: Ousmane Dembele wins the ball inside his own penalty area, gallops down the right flank and beats two men as he does so. Runs three quarters of the length of the pitch before chipping away at Adrien Rabiot down the left. He links up with Mbappé before the ball plays back to Dembele. His shot is blocked.
Frenchman Dembele in action with Dane Maehle. Photograph: Marko Đurica/Reuters
Updated at 16.11 GMT
5 min: Denmark are getting the ball in the early gates, trying to play it out at every opportunity.
2 min: Kasper Schmeichel gets an early touch, receiving a back pass from distance. He plays the ball forward to Victor Nelsson, who replaces Simon Kjaer. Those are big boots to fill for the Glatasaray defender who is earning just his eighth international cap.
1 min: As expected in the absence of Thomas Delaney, Christian Eriksen lines up in a slightly deeper role than he did against Tunisia.
France-Denmark leaves…
1 min: Denmark get the ball rolling, their players in white shirts, red shorts and white socks. France players wear blue shirt, white shorts and red socks.
Not long now: the teams are on the pitch, led by referee Szymon Marciniak and his team of match referees. It’s time for national anthems…
Bottom to top: “We’re ready to go here at our bar in Copenhagen,” writes Kim Thonger. “Determined to support our Danish cousins, my wife armed with a glass of Gløgg, me with a fearsome bottle of 9% Icelandic beer called Gluggagægir. The French have everything to do against these kinds of weapons” .
More correspondence: “I feel a little sad for Pavard, who has already left me,” writes Kári Tulinius. “When he arrived at Stuttgart, he seemed destined to be one of the greatest defenders of all time, but his move to Bayern has not worked out for him. On the other hand, he scored one of the all-time World Cup goals in one of the all-time World Cup games, so I guess he doesn’t need much pity from me or anyone else.”
Yes, it will be that volley against Argentina from outside the penalty area in the round of 16 at the 2018 World Cup that I can’t post here because the Fifa curtain raisers have made sure it can’t be seen. You can find it on YouTube if you don’t remember it, although if you’ve seen it before, you’re unlikely to have forgotten it.
An email: “In my village football days in the 1950s and 1960s all you needed was a referee,” shouts David Mitchell to a passing cloud. “Home and away teams provided their own linesman. Today that would probably mean a riot at every game, but I don’t recall any real problems due to bias and I never saw an official being attacked.”
That’s all very well, David, but surely your village kicks would have been improved by the presence of a video assistant on standby.
Those teams: As expected, Raphael Varane starts at centre-back for France after making a full recovery from a hamstring injury. The M anchester United defender is the heart of the French defense alongside Dayot Upamecano, while Jules Kounde replaces Benjamin Pavard at right-back. Aurelien Tchouameni and Adrien Rabiot start in midfield with Antoine Griezmann put to work in support of the attacking trio of Ousmane Dembele, Kylian Mbappe and Olivier Giroud.
Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand has made four changes to the team that drew with Tunisia. Simon Kjaer drops to the bench, making way for Victor Nelsson, while Jesper Lindstrom comes in for Andreas Skov Olsen. Mikkel Damsgaard comes into midfield in place of the injured Thomas Delaney, while Andreas Cornelius is rewarded for his stunning failure against the North African side with a starting berth. kasper…