Leeds United defender Rasmus Kristensen has been knocked out of the group stages of the World Cup with a 1-0 defeat against Australia. The Danes knew that only a win would do over the Aussies but struggled to create chances throughout and were hit on the break courtesy of Mathew Leckie's second-half goal.
Kristensen played 45 minutes of the defeat this afternoon after being replaced by Alexander Bah at the break. The score was level at the time of his withdrawal but he will now be preparing to fly back to West Yorkshire after a disappointing World Cup campaign.
Hopes were high for the Scandinavian nation after reaching the semi-finals of the EUROs 18 months ago and so this will be deemed as a big failure. Denmark finished bottom of their group on just one point.
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Kristensen has been a regular for Denmark in Qatar having also started each of their first two group matches against both Tunisia and France. The 25-year-old, though, has failed to follow in the footsteps of Leeds' other two representatives at the World Cup, Brenden Aaronson and Tyler Adams.
The aforementioned duo helped USA qualify for the last-16 with a win over Iran on Tuesday and will face Netherlands on Saturday afternoon, kick-off 3pm GMT. At this stage it is unclear whether Kristensen will link straight up with his teammates at Leeds or be handed a chance for a break like the rest of the squad not participating at the tournament.
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