Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/994982
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 JUNE 2018 28 WORLD CUP SPORTS DENMARK rode their luck against Peru, who missed a pen- alty, as Yussuf Poulsen scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory. Christian Cueva missed a golden chance to give Peru a deserved lead just before half time as he blazed his wild penalty miles over the bar. Peru continued to look the more likely to score with more pace and purpose than Denmark, but they were just lacking a touch of composure in and around the box. Denmark's goal came on the break, with Christian Erik- sen playing in Poulsen down the left edge of the box and, although his first touch was poor, his left-footed finish was perfect. Peru continued to press but found Kasper Schmeichel in great form as they were just unable to find the finishing touches to their fine build-up play. Yussuf Poulsen wins it for Danes after Cueva missed penalty • Denmark have won four of their five opening games at World Cup tournaments, losing only against the Netherlands in 2010. • Peru are winless in their last seven World Cup games (W0 D2 L5). • Denmark have won three of their four World Cup matches against South American opponents, with the only exception being a 2-3 defeat against Brazil in the 1998 quarter-final. • This was just Denmark's second clean sheet across their last 12 World Cup matches (also 2-0 vs France in 2002). • Peru had 17 shots in this game, the most by a team without scor- ing so far in the 2018 World Cup. • Peru's missed penalty in the first half means there have already been more unsuccessful penalty attempts in this World Cup (2/5) than there were in the whole 2014 tournament (1/13, exclud- ing shootouts). • Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel has kept a clean sheet in his last five appearances for Denmark. He's gone 534 minutes without conceding at international level, with his last goal shipped com- ing via the Republic of Ireland's Shane Duffy in November. • Denmark keeper Kasper Schmeichel has already kept as many World Cup clean sheets in one game as his father Peter did in five appearances in the compe- tition (1). • Christian Eriksen has scored (12) or assisted (5) 17 goals in his last 14 appearances for Denmark. • Yussuf Poulsen has now scored in his last two appearances for Denmark, with both of those goals being assisted by Christian Eriksen. Match statistics Denmark celebrate their goal against Peru Peru's Christian Cueva missed a penalty