The Schmeichel family have made so much history during their glittering goalkeeping careers that neither Kasper nor Peter realised another record had fallen during Denmark’s defeat of Peru in their opening game.

Kasper, by keeping a clean sheet on his World Cup debut, edged past his father in the number of minutes played for Denmark without conceding a goal. A man-of-the-match performance took him to 533 minutes unbeaten, a fact pointed out to him by statisticians. But it is victory, not personal glory, he will be striving for when Denmark play Australia in a decisive match in Group C on Thursday.

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“I spoke to my dad afterwards but I don’t think either one of us was aware of it,” he said. “Clean sheets is a misleading statistic. It gives you the platform to win a game but you can lead 5-0 and concede a goal. It’s a personal record which is nice but it’s not important. The important statistic is the number of games you win.”

Schmeichel was praised by Denmark’s coach, Åge Hareide, for making six saves as they narrowly edged out Peru 1-0 in a performance that lacked spark in other areas. “It’s good to have a good goalkeeper, let me put it that way,” he said. Hareide acknowledged his team will have to improve if they are to beat Australia at the Samara Arena.

The Socceroos have naturally identified Christian Eriksen as the danger man, with their Huddersfield midfielder, Aaron Mooy, saying stopping the Tottenham talisman will be key. Hareide was confident Eriksen would perform despite the focus on him.

Kasper Schmeichel Kasper Schmeichel

“Christian is a player who can change matches and we try to get him involved as much as we can,” Hareide said. “The opponents, they are going to be very cautious and careful about him, but he is used to that, isn’t he, from the Premier League. We hope that we will get him up to a good level and that he will be able to show good things at this World Cup.”

Schmeichel concurred. “It goes without saying Christian is a world-class player and we are very lucky he is Danish – I’m very happy about that,” he said. “He was important to us through qualification and continues to be important. He is very down to earth – you wouldn’t think he’s a world-class player.”

Samara’s gleaming out-of-town stadium will be teeming with Australia fans, who vastly outnumber the Danes. Only 900 Danish fans are expected at the game compared with 12,000 supporters who have travelled from Australia. “We have seen the videos of people celebrating back home so we have a lot of backing,” Schmeichel said. “Some of our families also tried to get to Russia but had problems with visas and travel.”

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The Denmark squad is depleted by one after the Ipswich defender Jonas Knudsen was flown home by private plane to be with his wife, who has just given birth. He was an unused substitute against Peru.