Lionel Messi lost his nerve, Robert Lewandowski went under completely – and yet both world footballers made it into the round of 16 of the World Cup: Argentina celebrated a well-deserved 2-0 (0-0) against Poland in the duel of the top stars and is in for the fifth time in a row the knockout round.
Even for Lewandowski and Co. it was wafer-thin because the parallel game between Saudi Arabia and Mexico brought the necessary result.
For the first time in 36 years, Poland is among the last 16 of a World Cup, a whole generation has never experienced that.
“It wasn’t so nice, it was a long evening for us, but it ended well,” said the exhausted goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.
But Poland’s success hung by a thread. Alexis Mac Allister (46th) and Julian Alvarez (67th) shot Argentina to victory, a much higher result would have been possible. Messi had already missed a penalty kick before the break (39th).
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However, Poland now has to play against world champions France in the round of 16, Argentina has to deal with Australia. Two of the most prominent names from the World Cup remain in the tournament.
Two early finishes by Lionel Messi
Poland’s coach had timidly defended himself against this escalation before the game. “It’s not one-on-one,” said Czeslaw Michniewicz, “that’s not tennis.”
And then had to admit that he “counts” on Lewandowski in a game like this: “And I know that all of Argentina is counting on Messi.”
And so the two captains were the first to step onto the pitch of Stadium 974 in Doha, and then it started in front of 44,089 spectators. Lewandowski dangerously freed his teammate Krystian Bielik early on (5th), on the other hand Messi shot twice himself in the early stages – first hesitantly (7th), then more dangerously (10th).
Argentina clearly superior in Lionel Messi’s record game
The favorites were much more active, besieging the Polish penalty area at times, and there were always brilliant ideas from Messi, who, by the way, has been Argentina’s World Cup record player since Wednesday with 22 appearances – ahead of Diego Maradona.
Chances for Marcos Acuna (16th/29th), Angel di Maria (33rd) and Julian Alvarez (36th) then led to the first highlight of the game: The strong Szczesny hit Messi with his hand on the head after a cross Intervention by VAR there was a questionable penalty – but Messi found his master in Szczesny. The six-time world footballer grinned like someone who doesn’t have anything to smile about and a little later it was goalless at the break.
After that, though, things got better for the South Americans. The pressure was increasing, Mac Allister and Alvarez only used two of the numerous chances for an important victory.
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