Argentina and Poland. These are the two teams from Group C that reached the 1/8 finals after the last day of the first stage. Argentina go through first after the shock of debuting with Saudi Arabia and a grueling Poland pushes their way to the next round on goal difference compared to Mexico, who managed to beat Saudi Arabia 1-2.

The two American teams cornered their rivals from the start and went for the win without speculating. Mexico had no other choice, they only had to win and wait for Argentina to do the same against Poland, while the win secured Scaloni’s men in first place.

Argentina achieved something against Poland that it failed in the first two games, finding Messi easily. With the ball at the feet of the No. 10, everything seemed more expensive to Argentina, but Poland pulled out its lines along with Szczesny and defended solvently. Passing the minutes under Argentina dominance allowed Messi to find gaps in the European defense and filter out a few passes that created some clean scoring chances. 5 minutes before the break, VAR called the referee for touching the Polish goalkeeper in Messi’s face after finishing, and the man from Rosario took responsibility. Szczesny became huge and made a save with a change of hands on the left, which, in addition to other stretches, made him the best player in the first half.

The story seemed to be getting hazy for Argentina, a goal from Arabia left them with that tie, but as soon as he stepped out of the dressing room, Mac Allister reassured his country with a play from a finisher he sent in the back. net after Molina’s canopy on the right. Released by Argentina with a score of 0:1, which has already released, went further. Alvarez made it 0-2 and Argentina limited themselves to flinging the ball from one side to the other and making Poland tremble to the end as 0-2 with Argentina and 0-2 with Mexico to Saudi Arabia kept them in the World Cup cards, but another Mexico goal sent them home.

Mexico failed to beat Al Owais for a third time and Arabia ended the final 1–2 with the Americans focusing on a goal that was never scored and that left them very little out of the qualifying rounds for the title. From Julián Alvarez’s goal in the 67th minute of the Poland-Argentina match to Al-Dawsari’s goal in the 95th minute of the match Saudi Arabia-Mexico, Poland and Mexico were tied on points, goal difference and the number of goals scored, so the criteria that Lewandowski’s men classified were that they were less likely to be shown yellow cards.

The tension for the Poles was brutal. Even Lewandowski defended very close to his zone. Another goal from Argentina or Mexico left them out. Scaloni’s changes caused great concern to the Polish defense, who kicked the ball over the goal line. The European team managed to finish without conceding more goals, and at the end of the match, Saudi Arabia closed the gap with two minutes left, which meant the confirmation of Mexico’s elimination.

Group C ends with Argentina in first place, Poland in second, Mexico in third and Saudi Arabia in fourth. The Crosses leave Argentina against Australia and Poland against France, finishing first and second in Group D.