Saudi Arabia 1-2 Mexico
Saudi Arabia decided the fate of two teams by scoring a goal late in their 2-1 loss to Mexico today at the Lusail stadium in Lusail, Qatar.
Saudi Arabia started out the game knowing that they needed a win today as well as a Polish victory in order to make it through. Seeing as both their game and the Poland vs. Argentina game were taking place simultaneously, what happened in one game would affect what needed to happen in the other.
By the 52nd minute, Mexico was ahead 2-0 thanks to Luis Chávez, as well as Henry Martín, who had scored earlier in the 47th minute. Saudi Arabia knew that the likelihood of them winning this game now was slim to none, but that their efforts could still affect the table at large.
In the 95th minute of stoppage time Saudi Arabia, thanks to Salem Al-Dawsari, would get what they thought was just a consolation goal. Instead, it turned out the goal would not only eliminate Mexico but put Poland through
Poland and Mexico both had four points at the end of this match, but the next marker that decides who qualifies is goal differential (GD). Saudi Arabia’s late goal put Mexico at -1 GD while Poland would have a 0 GD, meaning Poland would advance instead.
Argentina 2-0 Poland
El Albiceleste clinches top of the group, yet both teams advance in Argentina’s 2-0 win over Poland, today at Stadium 974 in Ras Abu Aboud, Qatar.
Both teams knew that a win today would decide which one of them would advance as the first-place team.
Despite Messi missing a penalty in the 39th minute, due to a great save by Wojciech Szczęsny, Argentina would get the win thanks to goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Julián Álvarez in the 46th and 67th minutes respectively.
Poland would keep their hopes alive by making sure that Argentina’s second goal was their last, but it was not until after the game that Poland would find out their fate. A late Saudi Arabia goal confirmed their qualification about three minutes after the end of Poland’s game.
In other matchday news:
Tunisia 1-0 France
In one of the bigger upsets of the World Cup – that, unfortunately, didn’t change much for either side – Tunisia upset France 1-0, thanks to a nice solo goal by Wahbi Khazri in the 58th minute of the game.
Australia 1-0 Denmark
In a must-win game for both teams, Australia would get the victory and advance in second place today at the Education City stadium in Al-Rayyan, Qatar. Australia was able to hold onto their standing and make it out thanks to a goal from Mathew Leckie in the 60th minute.
Due to these results, Argentina will face Australia, and France will face Poland in the Round of 16.
Photo: Guillermo Ochoa – Shutterstock – user: Dokshin Vlad – ID: 1128771776
