The goal that saved Argentina’s World Cup came out of nothing, really. A ball rolled into the center. A fast touch. A hard, low shot. That it came from Lionel Messi, though, was no surprise.
Messi saved his tournament and his nation’s soccer honor on Saturday night at Lusail Stadium, breaking open a tight game with Mexico with a rocket of a goal that filled the stadium with hope, and gave his team — a favorite laid low by a loss to Saudi Arabia — its swagger back.
Enzo Fernández made the ending a little easier, curling in a second goal about five minutes before the end to complete Argentina’s 2-0 victory over Mexico. But the story had been set earlier, with Messi, with a goal out of nothing, and with a team left for dead suddenly alive again.
Its job is not done, of course. Argentina still has to play Poland, which leads the group, on Wednesday. And if it loses then things can still go terribly wrong. But for one night, at least, they were finally going right once again.
Kylian Mbappé scored two second-half goals to grab a share of the World Cup scoring lead, and an in-control France finished Denmark, 2-1, to secure its place in the knockout stages with a game to go.
The goals also left Denmark — a semifinalist at last summer’s European Championship — needing a victory in its final game to avoid elimination. France closes the group stage with a game against winless Tunisia on Wednesday; Denmark will play Australia knowing it needs a victory to earn a place in the round of 16.
Image
Kylian Mbappé celebrates after scoring his second goal.Credit...Thanassis Stavrakis/Associated Press
Mbappé broke an hourlong deadlock with a smooth right-footed finish an hour. His second goal — a striker’s finish delivered at point-blank range — was his third of the World Cup, tying him with Ecuador’s Enner Valencia as the tournament’s top scorer.
Denmark, which had defended valiantly and regularly all night, responded to France’s opening goal within minutes, pulling even when defender Andreas Christensen drove a header into the net after it was deflected into his path by a teammate.
France’s first goal, in the 61st minute, had definitely been coming: Antoine Griezmann had skied a wide-open shot over the bar only minutes earlier. A much better one came in the game’s first 20 minutes, a threaded ball by Griezmann that would have sent Mbappé off on a breakaway if Christensen hadn’t grabbed him by the chest and pulled him down.
Giroud and others cried out for a red card, but Christensen had covering defenders, so escaped with only a yellow and a short lecture from the Polish referee, Szymon Marciniak.
John Herdman, Canada’s coach, addressing the team after a loss to Belgium on Wednesday.Credit...Friedemann Vogel/EPA, via Shutterstock
When Canada’s coach, John Herdman, gathered his players on the field after their opening loss to Belgium, his words were intended to inspire confidence. But in using a profane suggestion about what Canada was planning to do to Croatia in its second game, he has caused a minor international incident.
Asked about Herdman’s postgame remarks at a news conference on Saturday, Croatia Coach Zlatko Dalic employed the word “respect” 13 times in 90 seconds and suggested Canada had not shown his team nearly enough of it.
“This way of putting words together is not a sign of respect,” Dalic said through a translator. “The way we play, the way we behave and the way we respect all others are the reasons we are worthy of respect.”
Croatia forward Ivan Perisic, seated next to his coach at a table, suggested the players felt the same way. “I second the head coach,” he said, “and I cannot wait for the match to begin.”
Speaking earlier, Herdman tried to soothe tensions by characterizing his statement as an exhortation taken out of context.
“You say those things in an impassioned moment trying to inspire your team in a huddle, and when you’re asked the question what you said in that huddle, yeah, it was what I said,” he said.
“It’s not massively respectful to Croatian people and the Croatian national team. I understand very well where they’re at on the world stage. But in that moment, you’ve taken your men to that next place,” he added.
Saudi Arabia again tried to summon the magic that helped it produce the greatest moment in the country’s soccer history, but Poland’s goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczesny, and its star striker Robert Lewandowski made sure their team didn’t suffer the same fate as Lionel Messi and Argentina.
With 10 minutes remaining, and Saudi Arabia fresh off two good chances to score, Lewandowski doused the Saudis’ hopes, pouncing on an errant pass from Abdulelah al-Malki and then easily rolling the ball into the back of the net for his first World Cup goal.
Saudi Arabia’s Salem al-Dawsari failed to convert a penalty kick late in the first half that would have pulled his team even against Poland. Al-Dawsari, whose stunning winning goal beat Argentina on Tuesday, stepped up to take the penalty after Salem al-Shehri was fouled in the area by Khrystian Bielik. Al-Dawsari sent his attempt left, but Poland’s goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczesny, dove to punch it aside. The rebound fell to Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed al-Burayk, but his sharp shot was saved by Szczesny, too.
Szczesny thwarted al-Dawsari again early in the second half when the Saudi midfielder collected a rebound in front of goal and fired from point-blank range.
Poland’s lead came in the first half when Robert Lewandowski scrambled to save a loose ball near the end line and then found Piotr Zielinski in front of the net, where the midfielder one-timed a shot over Saudi goalkeeper Mohammed Alowais.
Australia grabbed hold of a World Cup lifeline on Saturday, beating Tunisia, 1-0, on a first-half goal by Mitchell Duke at Al Janoub.
The victory, Australia’s first at the World Cup since 2010, temporarily scrambled the standings in Group D. And it briefly tied the Socceroos with France in first place with three points. (France restablished sole position of first, and clinched a spot in the knockout round, but beating Denmark, 2-1, later Saturday.
Tunisia’s defeat could prove crushing. Shut out for the second game in a row, it sits last in the group heading into its final group game against France, the defending champion and one of the favorites to win the tournament. The possible consequences of Saturday’s defeat to Australia, though, were palpable: After the game, midfielder Ali Abdi was in tears on the field.
Just as it had in its opener against France, Australia stunned its opponent with an early goal. This time it came in the 23rd minute off the forehead of Duke, who ran toward a deflected cross near the penalty spot midway through the first half and flicked a header over his shoulder to give the Socceroos the lead.
That goal represented serious trouble for Tunisia, and the Tunisians knew it. They turned up the pace in the second half and applied consistent pressure, but could not find a goal.
When the whistle blew to end the game, Australia’s substitutes poured off their bench and chased down their teammates, forming a dark blue mob of fist pumps and group hugs.
The Tunisians stood mostly where they were when time ran out: alone in their positions, hands on their hips, the end of their World Cup now in sight.
The loss to Senegal all but knocked the host country out of the tournament, and the draw between the Netherlands and Ecuador later in the day eliminated the tiny mathematical chance it had left.
Ecuador’s next match, against Senegal, will be critical in determining who moves on to the knockout stage. The Netherlands will have an easier path, taking on winless host Qatar.
Olivier Giroud, left, and Kylian Mbappe of France.Credit...Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
Tunisia vs. Australia
How to watch: 5 a.m. Eastern. FS1, Telemundo, Peacock.
In 40 years, Tunisia has won a grand total of one game at a World Cup. Australia has endured two winless tournaments since it last tasted victory. Both will see this as their best chance to break those streaks.
Poland vs. Saudi Arabia
How to watch: 8 a.m. Eastern. FS1, Telemundo, Peacock.
The Saudis have already provided the moment of the tournament, but a new opponent brings a different kind of test. Poland will not be nearly as proactive as Argentina, and Hervé Renard’s team can no longer count on the element of surprise.
Denmark vs. France
How to watch: 11 a.m. Eastern. FS1, Telemundo, Peacock.
The Danes, the tournament’s official Surprise Package in Waiting, had a stuttering start against Tunisia, but will remain confident of qualification. Anything they can take off France — which they have beaten twice this year — will be a pleasant bonus.
Argentina vs. Mexico
How to watch: 2 p.m. Eastern. FS1, Telemundo, Peacock.
Argentina will, of course, have spent the days since its defeat to Saudi Arabia telling itself that it has the quality, the talent, the experience to see off first Mexico, then Poland, and make it to the last 16. After all, it is not just Lionel Messi. It is Lautaro Martínez and Rodrigo De Paul and Ángel Di María, too. There are few squads in the tournament who possess their glamour or their gravity.
This is not really how it was supposed to go. Lionel Messi, the greatest player of his generation and, to some, the greatest of all time — that title is a matter of some debate, you may have noticed — is barely a week into his last World Cup and already he finds himself at the exit ramp. Lose to Mexico at Lusail Stadium late in the Qatari night and the clock will strike not just on his international career, but on the one world he has yet to conquer.
Argentina will, of course, have spent the days since its defeat to Saudi Arabia telling itself that it has the quality, the talent, the experience to see off first Mexico, then Poland, and make it to the last 16. After all, it is not just Messi. It is Lautaro Martínez and Rodrigo De Paul and Ángel Di María, too. There are few squads in the tournament who possess their glamour or their gravity.
Image
Credit...Gustavo Garello/Associated Press
It will not have spent much time dwelling on the identity of its opponent, although perhaps it should. Argentina and Mexico have a history at World Cups: In 2006 and 2010, it was Argentina that maintained Mexico’s resented streak of always falling in the round of 16. Those wounds still ache, just a little. Mexico, coached by Tata Martino — who once, so the story goes, was appointed Barcelona coach to mollify Messi, his fellow Rosario native — sees this as a chance to issue the most piercing kind of revenge.
That would, in truth, be both a bitterly anticlimactic denouement for Messi and something of a blow for the tournament itself: There are somewhere in the region of 50,000 Argentines crammed into Doha, and losing their energy and color would change the complexion of the World Cup. It was not supposed to end so soon. Messi’s task is to ensure it lasts at least a little longer.
Novice fans don’t understand it. Longtime fans claim to understand it, but then openly disagree about it. Referees and their assistants are trained to spot it but often have to turn to replays to make sure they’ve got it right.
