France will go into the knockout rounds as the winners of Group C, while Peru exited the Fifa World Cup 2018 with an impressive victory on Tuesday.
With the one remaining place from Group C at stake between Denmark and Australia, it was the European side that booked their place in the last 16, after the Socceroos were well beaten by Peru.
Australia went into the final round of group fixtures knowing they had to pick up all three points against Peru to stand any chance of pipping Denmark to second place. France were already assured of a place in the round of 16, and needed just a draw to guarantee top spot, while Peru were already eliminated.
However, amongst all of those four sides, Peru were the ones to entertain in an otherwise tepid final couple of matches of Group C – the exact opposite of the drama we witnessed in Group B on Monday night.
Despite putting in a couple of decent performances, Peru ended up losing both of their matches, before finally picking up the win they deserved in this Fifa World Cup 2018.
The South American side have brought so much joy to this World Cup, particularly through their fans, who have brought a party atmosphere, and then some, to every stadium they have entered.
Having seen their side fail to pick up the results in the first two games, the fans would have hoped their team would at least end the World Cup on a high, and they certainly did, with Andre Carillo and the skipper Paolo Guerrero scoring the goals in a 2-0 win over a disappointing Australia in Sochi.
Carillo opened the scoring for Peru in the first half and what a goal it was too – a peach of a volley that arrowed into the bottom corner, leaving Mat Ryan with absolutely no chance.
Australia did their best to try and get back into the game, but they were missing that something, that zip, intensity and X factor, and as a result, Peru took advantage by putting the game to bed early in the second 45.
Guerrero, who is only playing in this World Cup after the captains from the other teams in this Group wrote a letter to Fifa asking the striker to be granted permission to play following a drugs ban, latched onto a rebound off an Australia defender to ensure the South Americans would not leave the tournament empty handed.
In Moscow, Didier Deschamps, expectedly, made several changes to his starting XI, resting the likes of Hugo Lloris, Samuel Umtiti, Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe, and as a result France failed to find their attacking rhythm.
Denmark have been criticised, particularly back home, for their safety-first football, and there were very few occasions when they looked capable of breaching the France defence.
Christian Eriksen, who scored a wonderful goal in Denmark's last game, could not get into the match often enough, while Antoine Griezmann, at the other end, was also not as much of a factor as France would have liked.
In the second half, with Peru leading comfortable, Denmark made it clear they were more than happy with the draw, barely putting in any effort to score the goal that could have seen them finish top of the group.
As a result, Denmark vs France ended up being the first goalless draw of the Fifa World Cup 2018.
The point, however, was more than good enough for both teams, with France topping the group on seven points. Denmark finished with five, Peru had three, with Australia ending up bottom of Group C having managed a solitary point in three games.
