Australia, Poland, France, and Argentina all get big wins.
Two teams who could have been eliminated with defeats, but came up with big wins. Two teams who should have won last Tuesday, did on Saturday. France booked its spot for the Round of 16 with victory over Denmark, but CONCACAF remain winless at the World Cup so far after Mexico capitulated in the second half.
Tunisia 0-1 Australia:
The Socceroos ended a seven World Cup match winless streak with a much-needed win against Tunisia on Mitchell Duke goal 23 minutes in. Duke also gave us this nice anecdote with a sign to his son after scoring.
Momento favorito de #Qatar2022 en el Túnez vs Australia
Mitchell Duke anota el gol del triunfo para #AUS y lo celebra haciendo esta señal a su hijo, que le responde y anima desde la tribuna ? pic.twitter.com/P3TSqNtyvr
— Sopitas (@sopitas) November 26, 2022
Typical Aussie grit saw the Socceroos past the Carthage Eagles and now see themselves second in Group C. For Tunisia, who seemingly had a de facto home advantage with the amount of ex-pats in Qatar, now face a must-win against France to advance to the next round.
Poland 2-0 Saudi Arabia:
Speaking of heights to depths, the Green Falcons of Saudi Arabia went there after Poland scored in each half to nab the three points. Robert Lewandowski broke his duck at the World Cup after the Saudis contributed to the Twitter account “When Playing it Out of the Back Goes Wrong”:
Saudi Arabia exports a lot of oil. The Ghawar oil field has enough reserves to fill 4,770,897 Olympic pool.
Also, 100 camels are sold every day in the capital.
Lately, however, the Kingdom is ramping up its #WPIOOTBGW production to export. Looking good pic.twitter.com/e0b04Ygq6q
— When Playing It Out of the Back Goes Wrong (@wpiootbgw) November 26, 2022
Poland are now in (no pun intended) pole position in Group D and draw will be enough to go through against Argentina on Wednesday.
France 2-1 Denmark:
The French persist despite injuries to many key players and they have Kylian Mbappe scoring goals. Mbappe scored either side of Andrea Christensen’s strike to send France to the Round of 16–the first team to clinch a spot. Mbappe is picking up where he left off four years ago in Russia as Les Bleus look more like a contender to defend their title.
Denmark, considered one of the dark horses coming into the tournament, need to defeat Australia on Wednesday and hope Tunisia does not defeat France by a bigger margin (it could happen!). They need to get Christian Eriksen more involved in the attack.
Argentina 2-0 Mexico:
Cue the “Mighty Mouse Theme”! Lionel Messi came through to rescue Argentina in the second half followed by a cracking goal from Enzo Fernandez to seal things. The match lacked positive energy from either side as one was playing as if the jersey was a straitjacket and the other obsessed with trying to defeat the other after so many losses. After Messi’s strike, Mexico looked like the team was so unremarkable in World Cup Qualifying and now need a remarkable series of events to even make the “Cuarto Partido”.
It also makes CONCACAF winless in six matches at the World Cup with just Tim Weah’s goal for and 11 against (albeit seven were shipped by Costa Rica). It will be bad optics for CONCACAF if none of their teams win games, let alone advance.
Who Needs What in Groups C and D:
GROUP C:
France: Advanced to the Round of 16 and can win the Group with at least a draw against Tunisia.
Australia: Australia goes through with a win over Denmark. A draw is only enough if Tunisia fail to defeat France.
Denmark: A win over Australia will be enough if Tunisia do not defeat France by a bigger margin. Anything less by Denmark against Australia will eliminate them.
Tunisia: The simplest path is to defeat France and Australia and Denmark finish in a draw as Tunisia will have a superior goal difference (-1 to -2 at present). If Denmark wins, then Tunisia will need to win by a bigger margin over France.
GROUP D:
Poland: Poland advances with a draw over Argentina. A win will give them the group and potentially avoid a Round of 16 match against France. Elimination can occur though if they lose and Saudi Arabia defeats Mexico. Should Saudi Arabia and Mexico draw, then Poland would need to avoid defeat by 4+ goals.
Argentina: Argentina went from elimination with a loss on Saturday to advancing with a win on Wednesday. A draw will be enough if Saudi Arabia-Mexico ends in a draw or if Mexico cannot make up the goal difference in victory over the Saudis. A loss will eliminate Argentina regardless of the result of the other match.
Saudi Arabia: A win will see them through to the Round of 16 regardless of what goes on in the other match. A draw will not be enough unless Argentina inflict a heavy defeat on Poland.
Mexico: The simplest path for El Tri is to defeat Saudi Arabia and if Argentina lose to Poland. If Argentina and Poland draw, Mexico would need to make the the goal difference with the former. If Argentina defeat Poland, the Mexico would need to make up the goal difference with the latter.
