Moscow • Fans hated the battle of backpasses that the Denmark-France World Cup match devolved into farce, and they likely will watch more teams collude when soccer’s showcase expands to 48 teams.
The sellout crowd at Luzhniki Stadium started booing early in the second half, angry that two talented teams were passing the ball back to goalkeepers and refusing to go on the attack. It was a throwback to the 1982 “Disgrace of Gijon,” which pushed FIFA to run group finales at the same time so teams wouldn’t know what they needed to do to advance.