Day Three

In Day Three we had another four of our teams in action.

In Group C FRANCE beat AUSTRALIA 2-1 in their first game. Although the French had a couple of chances to take the early lead, it was Australia that kept the pressure on them in the first half. In the second half not much had changed in only the the pace of the game had slowed down. France was awarded a penalty in the 58^th minute and history was made with the World Cup's first VAR goal. The VAR (video assistant referee) penalised Australia's Risdon for a sliding challenge on Griezmann. Griezmann scored from the spot to score the first World Cup goal influenced by VAR. But Australia came back and scored four minutes later with another penalty of the game. The penalty was scored by Jedinak making it 1-1. France scored the winning goal in the 80^th minute from Pogba. France are in their 6^th World Cup with Golden Goals and they have a total of 22 votes. The highest number of goals that France have scored in an tournament, was back in the 1998 with 15 goals. They picked up 10 goals in Brazil 2014. Australia are new to Golden Goals and they have just one vote. In the other game, DENMARK won their first game as they win 1-0 against Peru. Peru could of gone a goal up before half time as they were awarded a penalty but they failed to score. Denmark scored their goal in the 59^th minute by Poulsen. Denmark are in their 3^rd World Cup with us and their highest score is 9 goals in 1998. They have just one vote.

In the table for Group C France are top with Denmark in second place.

In Group D ARGENTINA are the only nation that we have in this group and they drew 1-1 against a very determined Iceland in their first game. The first half was end to end football and it was the Argentina that scored first in the 19^th minute from Agüero but Iceland came back a few minutes later with a goal from Finnbogason. In the second half, Argentina had a penalty taken by Messi but a great save from the Iceland goalkeeper denied Argentina of their win. The games are now getting better with the big nations now playing although Iceland are the smallest nation to qualify for a World Cup finals. It was another great game to watch.Argentina are in their 8^th Golden Goals World Cup and their best was in the 2006 with 11 goals. In Brazil 2014 they scored a total of 8 goals. They have a total of 24 votes. In the other game for this group, Croatia won 2-0 against Nigeria.

In the table for Group D Croatia are top with the three points with Argentina in second place.

So after the third days play, nine of our eighteen nations have now played and only one has picked up a blank score sheet. We stand at a total of 17 goals to date.