After 37 matches...it’s the first goalless draw

We know how you feel, Kasper, we watched it!

WELL, there is always one of these at a World Cup and I suppose we should be grateful that we had to wait 37 matches for it. We also should be glad that it didn’t involve England.

There is such a thing as a good goalless draw and this was not it. This was a game so drab, so awful and so spiritless that it was tempting to look at FIFA’s big rule book and see if there was any way that we could send both France and Denmark home.

The whistles that greeted the conclusion of the game almost drowned out the stadium music. That in itself is not such a bad thing but we have not seen much like this in Russia 2018 and we should be very relieved about that.

Sadly — for us, not for them — both teams will go through to the knockout stages and that was part of the problem. Both knew a draw would leave them in the top two places in a group where it was hard to work out whether first was any more use than second.

So a draw they both needed and a draw they both got. Nobody pushed for the victory, nobody seemed too keen to inconvenience anybody else very much.

‘We have reached our goal to top the group,’ said France coach Didier Deschamps. ‘It was not an exciting game. There were no need to take risks as this result was fine for everyone. We tried to get a win and they did at the start, but it was a neutral match for the last 15 minutes.’

It’s hard to blame the teams. This was a desperately hot day and why should players waste energy ahead of greater challenges to come?

The French attitude was clear as soon as we saw the team sheet. There were six changes. No Paul Pogba, for instance.

Strikers Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud did play but seemed invisible to each other. For Denmark, meanwhile, they really need Christian Eriksen to fire if they are to play well and this was a quiet day for the Tottenham man.

There was an early flurry of activity. Presnel Kimpembe tackled Martin Braithwaite clumsily in the box and could easily have conceded a penalty. Eriksen then didn’t quite have the legs to reach an inviting low cross from Andreas Cornelius.

Giroud belted two chances over for France and substitute Nabil Fekir brought a save from Kasper Schmeichel after the interval. When

the final whistle came, both these teams progressed, while Peru and Australia go home.

‘We didn’t have to take risks to do better because this result was OK for everyone,’ admitted Denmark coach Age Hareide.

As the crowd left the Luzhniki Stadium, the DJ played Robbie Williams singing Let Me Entertain

You. It seems they do sarcasm in Russia, too.