This is the first encounter between Denmark and Tunisia at the Fifa World Cup. Their only previous meeting was a friendly 20 years ago in Japan, prior to the 2002 tournament; Denmark won 2-1.
Denmark are unbeaten against African opposition at the Fifa World Cup (W2 D2) while Tunisia have never prevailed against European opposition at the tournament (D3 L7).
This will be Denmark’s sixth Fifa World Cup appearance. It’s only the second time they have qualified for back-to-back tournaments, after 1998 / 2002.
Denmark have made it out of the group stages in four of their five previous Fifa World Cup appearances but have never progressed further than the quarterfinals (1998, lost 3-2 to Brazil).
None of Denmark’s 30 goals at the Fifa World Cup have come from outside the box. No team has scored as many times in the tournament without ever finding the net from long range.
Denmark won nine of their 10 games in World Cup qualifying, losing only against Scotland. They kept more clean sheets in the group stage of European qualifying than any other side (8).
This will be Tunisia's sixth appearance at the Fifa World Cup – they have never progressed past the group stages. Tunisia were the first African nation to win a match at the Fifa World Cup, beating Mexico 3-1 in 1978.
Going into Qatar 2022, Tunisia have lost 60 per cent of their Fifa World Cup games (9/15), the third highest percentage by a team to have played at least 15 games in the competition, behind only Saudi Arabia (69 per cent - 11/16) and Australia (63 per cent - 10/16).
Tunisia have failed to keep a clean sheet in 14 of their 15 games at the Fifa World Cup (25 goals conceded), the only exception coming against West Germany in 1978 (0-0).
No player scored more goals for Denmark in qualifying for the Fifa 2022 World Cup than Joakim Maehle (5, level with Andreas Skov Olsen), while no player was directly involved in more goals for the nation during their last major tournament than Maehle (3 – 2 goals, 1 assist at Euro 2020).
This will be Kasper Hjulmand’s second consecutive major tournament as Denmark manager. He led the Danes to the semifinals at Uefa Euro 2020, their best performance at a major tournament since winning Euro 1992.
Wahbi Khazri has been directly involved in each of Tunisia’s last four goals at the Fifa World Cup (2 goals, 2 assists).