Poland 0-2 Argentina: Three Things We Learned

We’re slowly but surely coming to the end of the FIFA World Cup group stage at Qatar 2022. A handful of nations have already qualified for the knockout stage and two of them are Poland and Argentina, teams that collided in their final group stage game last night.

It was a gritty affair but ultimately, it was Argentina who edged out a 2-0 win to top the group – with Poland joining them in the last 16.

Lucky Poles

Poland offered little to nothing from beginning to end against Argentina, and that’s putting it kindly. Robert Lewandowski was completely isolated and it’s near-enough impossible to remember many, if any, of the headline-making moments they had in front of goal. Given that they were about to go through via the Fair Play rule until Saudi Arabia intervened, we’d say they are pretty fortunate to progress.

Smooth Argentines

This was the game that Argentina fans had been waiting for. While they still had some issues with their end product, they were allowed to shine against a team that gave them the freedom of Doha. Lionel Messi didn’t even really have to get out of first gear and given that the World Cup has such a gruelling schedule, we’d say conserving their energy is the best thing they can do with a nasty road ahead.

Tough road ahead

Speaking of tough roads, both countries have their hands full in the round of 16. Argentina have the easiest pathway as they take on Australia but then again, the Aussies have beaten Denmark, Tunisia and took the lead against reigning world champions France. On the flip side, Poland will go head to head with Les Bleus – and it’s safe to say that pretty much nobody is giving them a good chance at reaching the quarter-finals, and it’s not hard to see why.