Poland 0-2 Argentina
As the World Cup started, Argentina was upset in its opener by Saudi Arabia. But Argentina responded like an expected favorite with a victory over Mexico and another over Poland 2-0 on Wednesday.
Argentina with its victory had enough points to win Group C with six, while Poland and Mexico each had four but Poland will move to the knockout round of 16. Argentina will next play Australia on Saturday and Poland meets France on Sunday.
Alexis Mac Allistar scored his first international goal and Julian Alvarez had the other in the second half leading Aregentina to the victory.
“It’s so emotional for me, for the whole squad.” Mac Allister said. “It’s a dream come true. I debuted with this team. I’m so proud of that, and now managing to score in a World Cup. I’m so happy!”
A lot of credit in the first half goes to the Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny who saved a Lionel Messi penalty kick and kept the score 0-0 at halftime.
Szczesny was busy throughout the first half seeing numerous shots from the attack of Argentina. The Poland defense was also up for the task in keeping Argentina off stride in getting a goal.
“I’m annoyed that I missed the penalty,” Messi said. “But the team came out stronger after my mistake. The team was convinced that we were going to win, it was a matter of scoring the first goal. After that the rest of the game was the way, we wanted.”
By getting the two second half goals showed just what Argentina wanted to do as a group and brought everyone together.
“We said it from the beginning, the player who has to come in knows what he has to do, and is always fully prepared,” Messi said. “The strength of this group is the unity, and everyone answered the call.”
Mac Allister scored the first goal early in the second half in the 46th minute and Alvarez added the other goal in the 67th minute.
Scheduling maybe is an issue in front of Argentina, but they must be able to handle it.
“It’s nearly 2 a.m. Thursday morning and we have to play again on Saturday. Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni said. “I don’t understand this, but we just have to prepare as best we can.”
