Tunisia star Hannibal has revealed how inside knowledge on Christian Eriksen stopped the Danes from being great.
The Manchester United youngster - currently on loan at Championship Birmingham City - warned his international team-mates they would be heading for defeat if they didn’t stop the former Spurs’ midfielder.
Eriksen was welcomed to the World Cup with a crunching tackle inside the opening 60 seconds as Aissa Laidouni clattered into him. Denmark never got up to the speed of the game in the face of Tunisia’s intensity and Hannibal claimed it was because of an inside job that his country profited.
He said: “I trained with Eriksen every day at Manchester United. I know he’s a very good player. So, I told the boys in our midfield that he was a very good player and not to give him any space. I also told them to be careful with our challenges because he’s very clever, skilful.
“I don’t think we gave him any, I think it worked. I talked to him on the field. Do you want to know what I said? Ah, that would be telling. It’s a conversation to stay between me and him.”
Tunisia, backed by a huge ex-pat population in Qatar, were value for their point. Hannibal added: “The Tunisian mentality is that we are aggressive - but we are also good players. I wasn’t surprised at all by the result. We’re good defensively and every team we play against knows that.”
Denmark skipper Simon Kjaer acknowledged the difficulties that Kasper Hjulmand’s side faced but said they won’t be frightened at the prospect of facing France.
He said: “France are the current world champions. They are a difficult team to play against. We’ve played them twice in the Nations League. We beat them twice.. We know that it’s possible with the qualities we have, but there are no easy games. France are a top team.”
