Denmark were knocked out on Wednesday to leave 16 Barcelona players in the competition

Denmark have been one of the biggest disappointments at the World Cup as they exited the competition at the group stage on Wednesday, losing to Australia when a win would have taken them through.

As a consequence, Andreas Christensen becomes the first Barcelona player to be eliminated from the World Cup in Qatar.

Despite the general disappointment in Denmark, Barça defender had a good World Cup. In fact, and although attacking is not his main task, Christensen his team's only goal in Qatar. It came in the narrow defeat against France (2-1), thanks to a well-timed header at a corner. That made it 1-1 but Mbappé popped up with a late winner.

Christensen played every minute of the three group-stage games and averaged 95 touches, 79 passes with a 94% accuracy rate, five long balls, three clearances, 3.7 duels won and only 0.7 fouls per game. He was one of the only lights in a team that lacked the best form of players such as Christian Eriksen, Martin Braithwaite, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Jesper Lindstrom and Kasper Dolberg, among others.

Denmark had high hopes before the tournament. But France and Australia progressed from their group.

First Barça man out

Barcelona, the club with the most representation in Qatar, have now seen one of the 17 players called up for the tournament eliminated. Christensen is the only one to fall in the group stage so far.

Frenkie de Jong, Memphis Depay, Ousmane Dembélé, Jules Koundé, Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha already have their presence in the round of 16 assured. The eight Spain players called up by Luis Enrique (Eric Garcia, Jordi Alba, Alejandro Balde, Sergio Busquets, Pedri, Gavi, Ferran Torres and Ansu Fati) will also do so if they get a point against Japan on Thursday.

Ronald Araujo, who has not yet been able to play for Uruguay due to his injury, and Marc-André ter Stegen, of Germany, are the Barça players with the biggest chances of following Christensen on his return trip to Barcelona. They need to beat Ghana and Costa Rica, respectively, in their final games.