^ abAs the identity of the AFC v CONMEBOL play-off winners was not known at the time of the final draw, positions in the FIFA Rankings were not taken into account, and the placeholder in the draw was automatically seeded into pot 4.[5]
The teams had faced each other twice, most recently in 2002, a 2–1 win for Denmark in a friendly game.
Denmark were not able to capitalize in their opening game, with Andreas Cornelius heading onto the post in the 70th minute. Although Tunisia failed to score themselves, midfielder Aïssa Laïdouni earned the Man of the Match award for his defensive heroics.[6]
Craig Goodwin gave Australia the lead in the ninth minute, when he finished at the back post high into the net after a low cross from the right by Mathew Leckie. Adrien Rabiot equalized for France when he headed to the net from a Théo Hernandez cross from the left. France took the lead five minutes later after Olivier Giroud's side footed shot found the back of the net from a low cross from Rabiot from the left. Jackson Irvine had a chance to equalize in first half stoppage time, but headed onto the post. [8]
In the 68th minute, Kylian Mbappé scored France's third goal with a header from six yards out to the left corner, after a cross from Ousmane Dembélé on the right. Giroud got his second with another header after a Mbappé cross from the left to make it 4–1.[9]
Giroud's second goal equalled Thierry Henry's all-time scoring record of 51 goals for France.[10] France's win marked the first time since 2006 that the defending World Cup champions won their opening game. On the other hand, Goodwin's goal was the fastest France had conceded in the tournament since 1982.[11]
French defender Lucas Hernandez suffered a torn ACL after 13 minutes of the match, ruling him out for the remainder of the tournament.[12] He would be substituted by his brother Théo during the match.
Australia beat Tunisia 1–0 as a result of a Mitchell Duke header in the 23rd minute to secure their first win in a World Cup match since they defeated Serbia 2–1 in 2010. This was also Australia's first clean sheet since they drew 0–0 with Chile in 1974.[14]
The teams had met thrice in the World Cup, all in the group stage with three different results; France won 2–1 in 1998, Denmark won 2–0 in 2002 and the teams drew 0–0 in 2018.
Kylian Mbappé scored two goals either side of an Andreas Christensen equalizer to secure France a 2–1 win and qualify them for the knockout stage, thus becoming the first defending champions since Brazil in 2006 to advance past the first round. Among European countries, they were the first World Cup holders to qualify for the knockout stage since Germany in 1994.[16][17][18][19]
The teams had met once in the World Cup, a 1–1 draw in 2018.
Australia won the game 1–0 to finish second in the group.[21] The only goal of the match was scored by Mathew Leckie in the 60th minute with a low left-foot finish to the bottom right corner of the net.[22] This result meant that Australia progressed to the knockout stage for the second time in their World Cup history, the first time since 2006 and the first time they did it as a member of the AFC. This was also the first time that Australia had won two consecutive matches, scored in every group stage game, and kept a clean sheet twice in a World Cup.[23]
The two teams had faced each other four times, most recently in 2010 friendly, a 1–1 draw.
A Tunisian goal in the 8th minute was disallowed for offside, but Wahbi Khazri put Tunisia into the lead in the 58th minute with a low shot to the bottom right corner. At that stage, Tunisia was in a position to qualify from the group. However, two minutes later Australia went in front against Denmark in the other match taking place at the same time, which put Tunisia outside of the qualifying positions.[25] In added time, Antoine Griezmann seemingly scored to make it 1–1 for France with a volley, but the goal was ruled out by the VAR for offside, despite the ball having come off a Tunisian player just before. Australia went on to beat Denmark, which meant that Tunisia finished third in the group and failed to reach the knockout stage for the sixth consecutive World Cup.[26]
Viewers tuning in to French television for the match missed that the French team had lost the game 1–0. TF1 switched to an ad after Griezmann had seemingly levelled the game late in stoppage time, causing French viewers to miss the pitchside monitor consultation that led VAR to rule that Griezmann had been offside. French football supporters awoke in shock the following morning to belatedly discover that the game had not ended in a tie at all, but in a surprise defeat for the reigning world champions. The incident brought to mind the time British broadcaster ITV cut for an ad break and missed Steven Gerrard scoring England's opening goal at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.[27][28]
Fair play points would have been used as tiebreakers if the overall and head-to-head records of teams were tied. These were calculated based on yellow and red cards received in all group matches as follows:[2]
first yellow card: −1 point;
indirect red card (second yellow card): −3 points;
direct red card: −4 points;
yellow card and direct red card: −5 points;
Only one of the above deductions was applied to a player in a single match.
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