An excerpt from Darren Mara's report, for SBS, on 21 February, 2018

With Australia and Denmark facing off at the World Cup this year, SBS News meets a group of Danish expats playing the beautiful game in Sydney.

'World Cup Fans' is a special SBS News series running in the lead up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. It looks at the 32 qualifying countries through the eyes of their fans in Australia.

...
Kristoffer... Kraen says most Danes believe the Socceroos won't cause them much trouble on their path to the Round of 16.

"I'm fairly certain that Denmark is going to beat Australia. I actually went to the game where you guys qualified against Honduras and it wasn't pretty. And if you look at the way Denmark qualified against Ireland, obviously a thrashing, 5-1. Christian Eriksen was insane, so I think we've got the star players and also the tactical skills to beat you significantly."

A perhaps more measured assessment came from Kraen's Vikings teammate Christian Bessmann.

"We have a very young team. I mean Christian Eriksen is the big star in the team but if he's out there's a lot missing for the team. Just as Kristoffer said, we'll win, but it's a World Cup and there's never an easy game in the World Cup."

The Socceroos face Denmark in Samara on June 21.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/world-cup-fans-danish-vikings-confident-ahead-of-socceroos-clash

Hope their team has the same hubris!

Looking at their squad, I'd be very confident too.

yep.

they see themselves as immortals? Lets put that name to the test

So you're hoping we will show a lot of "fight" but that it will ultimately be a small pointless blip against an otherwise successful demolition?

I suppose in that analogy  they go down at half time after showing a lot of fight until the ffa get caught taking money from denmark and get replaced then win qualifying for the r16 (thats the scene at the end with 10 000 spartans)

on paper they are formidable but the form isn't mind blowing

recent games

Lost to jordan 3-2
Lost to sweden 1-0
drew with ireland 0-0
beat ireland 5-1
drew 1-1 with romania
beat montenegro 1-0
beat poland 4-0
beat armenia 4-1
drew 0-0 to romania
lost 1-0 to montenegro
beat armenia 1-0
Kazakstan 3-1

2 outstanding games but a lot of meh in between

I mean you're not entirely wrong, the team is pretty hot/cold but, there has been an enormous difference in the last half of the qualifying season. We started sluggish to put it mildly, then mostly found the pace.
One of the more important notes for that list of results though, is that a game like the friendly against Sweden, was "Ligalandsholdet" - a team exclusively made up of players who play in the Danish Superliga and usually aren't in the starting lineup for the "A-team", the closest overlap is Frederik Rønnow and Mike Jensen who were on the bench against Ireland, the Jordan game didn't even have those overlaps. Neither of those teams have a single player in common with what Australia is likely to be facing in Russia.

That's not to say that Australia can't cause an upset, but I reckon it would be surprising. 

Imo, a lot depends on the style of football that Denmark play. Do you think Denmark will be quite aggressive, quite defensive or somewhere in between?

our new coach's ability to get results is impressive

having said that it takes time for any coach to get improvement out of a team

Indeed. I would have Denmark as favourites on paper. But BVM makes a huge difference and he will be able to find weaknesses which can be exploited. Of course, we also have our myriad weaknesses. The good thing is that, we can reasonably expect our weaknesses to be less exploitable than they were in the qualification campaign.

Only advantage is that no one will know what to expect from us. Could play into our hands

I reckon BVM can make our defence a fairly tight ship. I've long believed that Sains is good enough to be a key defender in the Premier League, Bundesliga, etc. It's going to take some tinkering to get the others there (left-field thinking may be needed for right-back). But BVM takes up the job unencumbered by the baggage of preconceived ideas which others in the Australian football community might have. We can have a defence which is plenty capable of giving us a fighting chance. Just as Denmark's biggest strength lies in central midfield, ours does too. We can play an attritional brand of football which makes it tough for them.

Then try to hurt them in transition. We definitely have some of the key ingredients necessary to do that. We shan't have an out-and-out striker, which is is a big disadvantage. But that can be managed by having a few in the final third who have track records as goal-scorers. Imo, if there can be an Australian attacking footballer who can wreak havoc in 1 vs 1 (with speed), then we have enough pieces of the jigsaw to put up a really good fight against the Danes.

Using the Honduras game to judge us is a mistake.

Europeans under-estimate the effects of distance travelling.  Aaron Mooy scored against Manchester United but doesn't look the same player for the NT, and then been off his game for Huddersfield every time after internationals. We also play to the level of our opponent.  

2006, 2010. 2014-the first half hour has been disastrous

The first half hour of the France game is crucial.  If we don't end up like the deer in the head lights, I can see us building in self-belief.

I think having BVM will go a long way in getting the players to believe they belong, even if the opposition doesn't.

No offence to Denmark and Peru (who should be thinking the same about us) but we should be looking at this draw as a great opportunity. We have a highly talented but inconsistent and tactically and mentally questionable pot 1 team, along with two fairly average other sides who are two of the lessor sides from their confederations that qualified.

"Aaron Mooy scored against Manchester United but doesn't look the same player for the NT,"

*cough Ange*

Denmark got some quality players but we should not fear them at all, based on how they play they are beatable. 

Christian Eriksen none needs to be said about him, one of the best No.10s in the world right now.

Christiansen at Chelsea is also very good, a young defender who will probably team up with Simon Klaer from Sevilla at the back

Lass Schone who is a very good No.6 with a strong passing game, who would look to control there midfield

And up front with Pione Sisto who plays at Celta Vigo, very good winger who can play up front too and the favorite one with Bendtner! 

But the rest of the squad is nothing to fear about i feel we can beat them or get a point if we can play well on the day. 

Honestly, on paper, I'd say that Denmark are better than us. I wouldn't say they're 'fairly average'.

But World Cups aren't played on paper. And we don't actually need to a better team than Denmark, overall. We simply need to be better in the right areas of the park.

Ideal situation that!

There's 32 teams going to russia, on paper Denmark would sit somewhere around the 15th-20th best team going. In the context of this competition they are average. I'm not saying we are better, just that they aren't a team we should fear.

Gotcha

can BVM put a land mine at rb and make the danish goals afl size?