Argentina beat Poland 2-0 to lead the group; Mexico defeated Saudi Arabia 2-1, but they were eliminated due to a lower goal difference. Mexico knew they needed at least three goals. Poland was aware that they had a three-goal lead. Mexico had to face a Saudi Arabia team that had defeated Argentina, and Poland had to deal with Messi. Both games went exactly as expected: Poland didn’t make a single shot, lost by two goals, and made it into the Round of 16.
Mexico fought until the very end, scoring two goals and trying to get third. But they only gave up one goal in the last few minutes of their time at the 2022 Qatar World Cup. The permutations and combinations that were being put out. Then struck out as each goal and each save changed scenarios, however, were unlike any other group at this World Cup. The drama engulfed the second half of both games.
The two games went into the primary half goalless yet not so much for an absence of endeavoring. Although everyone agreed that it was a good goal, even a well-struck mid-range shot at the goalkeeper’s left is not a statistically sound penalty to take. Wojciech Szczesny got it just in time.
Mexico was shooting at the goal from every possible angle and distance in their game. Messi missed only one clear opportunity.
Mexico responded with an average of four to five players at the throat of Herve Renard’s charges, while Saudi Arabia went with three backs and a high line. At the end of the first half, the Saudis parried, blocked, or heroically cleared each of Mexico’s over ten attempts. As the second half began, the group’s complexion changed.
After running into a brick wall for the first 45 minutes of the other game, Mexico finally scored minutes later. Henry Martin delivered on his promise, scoring in the Saudi penalty area to make the score 1-0. El Tri then scored another goal in the 52nd minute, this time a left-footed free kick that Luis Chavez rushed into the goal to quickly flip the group around. As the ball smashed into the left upper corner, goalkeeper Al Owaisi was powerless to stop it.
Mexico needed to achieve one more goal at this point. On the other hand, Poland would advance on the basis of FIFA’s fair-play rules if Argentina scored another goal to make it 2-0 on their side and Saudi Arabia scored the same goal. FIFA’s fair play decides directly on the off chance that a situation happens where two groups in a gathering have a similar number of focuses.
If a similar objective distinction, and have both drawn against one another, then the group with fewer yellow cards would move into the Round-of-16. Senegal was forced to withdraw from the 2018 World Cup as a result of this rule because they had received too many yellow cards. When Julian Alvarez scored in the 67th minute to put Poland down by two goals, Argentina decided to add more gunpowder to the group’s volatility.
Now, Mexico absolutely required that third goal, or their World Cup campaign would be over.
The general consensus was that Mexican fans had low expectations for their team even before this tournament began. Their first two matches, a drab 1-1 draw with Poland and a 2-0 defeat to Argentina, demonstrated that this assessment might have been accurate. However, during the final forty minutes, they threw everything at the Saudis.
They scored in the 56th moment just for the objective to be properly prohibited as offside. In the 86th minute, they had another goal disallowed for offside once more. The Argentina-Poland match was the first to end, and with a 2-0 victory, the Argentines took first place in the group. On camera, Polish fans looked nervously at their phones before looking back at their own field of play. Saudi Arabia was Poland’s Round-of-16 opponent.