Doha: When they needed it most, Argentina produced their best World Cup performance to date, beating Poland 2-0 on Wednesday, a result that sealed them top of Group C and a last 16 clash with Australia. given.
It has already been a roller-coaster ride in Qatar for the South Americans, who came into the tournament on the back of a 36-match unbeaten run under coach Lionel Scaloni, but their impressive 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia Looked bad in the opening defeat. ,
This immediately put them on the back foot in the pool, but they did enough to defeat Mexico 2–0 in another unconvincing performance in their second match, before a much better performance against Poland at Stadion 974, where they The vast majority of the 44,089 crowd were roaring.
“We wanted to make up for the loss (against Saudi Arabia). It was a great game today, we played very well collectively.
“We tried to stay positive, to stay calm. We didn’t feel down. We tried to be optimistic and go for the match. Luckily we managed to win and move on.
There was more zip, better combinational play and an altogether more polished Argentina on Wednesday, when they had 24 shots on target, which suggests a theory put forward by Belgium coach Roberto Martinez last week may be correct.
Martínez said that most teams would be ready to compete in Qatar by their third pool game, as they had so little time to train before the World Cup and some reached the final without any friendly matches.
“This tournament is going to make you grow and develop. If you do this after winning a match, then it is an incredible advantage.
When it comes to Argentina, the evidence is certainly compelling. He has consistently improved and saved his best performance for arguably his toughest pool opponent.
This should be a warning to other headliners hoping Lionel Messi and co. Starting to click into gear. And maybe they just have to do something else.
Messi darted around the pitch, bursting into life when he had the ball, showing again that this is an Argentine side less reliant on him than in the past, although that does not mean he Not an important player for them.
There are a number of other players in this side who are growing in stature and they too will be ready to face either the Netherlands or the United States in the quarter-finals provided they can beat the Australians on Saturday. – Reuters
(Reporting – Nick Said, Editing – Pritha Sarkar)
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