World Cup preview: Australia v Peru, Denmark v France, Iceland v Croatia, Nigeria v Argentina

With the second day of third round group matches upon us Lionel Messi’s Argentina lie in serious peril of making an early exit from the tournament as the teams from Groups C and D play their final games.

1500 BST Australia v Peru (ITV4) (Group C)

1500 BST Denmark v France (ITV) (Group C)

1900 BST Iceland v Croatia (BBC) (Group D)

1900 BST Nigeria v Argentina (BBC) (Group D)

Peru are already out of the competition after losing their opening matches and come up against an organised and tireless Australian side in their final appearance at this World Cup.

The Socceroos need a victory to stand any chance of qualifying for the next round and will have to replace injured frontman Andrew Nabbout with Tomi Juric, Jamie Maclaren or Tim Cahill.

Tim Cahill would become just the fifth player, along with Pelé, Uwe Seeler, Miroslav Klose and now Cristiano Ronaldo, to score at four World Cups if he nets against the South Americans.

The Aussies also need Denmark to lose in their match with France, something that looks likely given the Danes' absent players and France’s stellar record.

Striker Yussuf Poulsen will miss out after collecting two bookings while William Kvist will also be missing after breaking two ribs and suffering a punctured lung in Denmark’s last match.

France meanwhile may look to take their foot off the gas and rest the likes of Paul Pogba and Blaise Matuidi, having already secured qualification with two winning, yet perhaps a little unconvincing, performances.

Iceland finished above Croatia in their qualifying group for the tournament and will need to beat them to stand any chance of making it out of Group D.

The Vikings face an uphill task however, as they will likely be without centre-back Ragnar Sigurdsson and Burnley winger Johann Gudmundsson, and face a Croatia side that looks to have hit form following their stunning victory over Argentina last week.

Ivan Rakitic, Ante Rabic, Sime Vrsaljko, Mario Mandzukic, Marcelo Brozovic and Vedran Corluka face respective bans if they receive another yellow card and so Croatia manager Zlatko Dalic is likely to make changes as his side have already secured qualification.

Lionel Messi will be looking to finally bring Argentina’s tournament to life against Nigeria, having looked desperately disappointing and suffering from too much pressure so far in the competition.

The two-time World Cup winners have looked shambolic and uninspired, and will likely drop goalkeeper Willy Caballero after his disastrous error in their last match.

The rest of the side may also see a complete rehaul by manager Jorge Sampaoli after he faced criticism for leaving out players such as Ever Banega, Gonzalo Higuain and Angel Di Maria in the loss to Croatia.

A win for Nigeria will secure their qualification regardless of other results.

The African side came to life in their win over Iceland, benefitting from a switch to a 3-5-2 formation and the addition of pacey Leicester city attacker Ahmed Musa, who also netted two goals against Argentina at the last World Cup.