Denmark’s starting line-up was a staggering 99 centimetres taller than Peru’s in their Russia 2018 curtain-raiser – the biggest gap between two teams ever recorded in a World Cup game. Amazingly, it was despite 2.00-metre Jannik Vestergaard, one of the tallest outfield players in the competition’s history, being on the Danish bench.
Pedro Gallese, La Blanquirroja’s 1.89m goalkeeper and tallest player, was shorter than six Danes: Henrik Dalsgaard (1.90m), Kasper Schmeichel (1.90m), Simon Kjaer (1.91m), Andreas Christensen (1.92m), Yussuf Poulsen (1.93m) and Nicolai Jorgensen (1.94m).
Ultimately, skyscraping sunk small in Saransk. After 1.69m Christian Cueva won and wasted a penalty, Poulsen slid home the only goal.
