Argentina, Poland, Australia advance; history on tap
Rest easy, soccer fans. Lionel Messi will grace the World Cup stage at least one more time.
The Argentina great had a penalty saved but his team still beat Poland 2-0 on Wednesday at the Stadium 974 in Doha after secondhalf goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Julian Alvarez and advanced to the last 16.
After opening the World Cup with a shocking 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia in one of biggest upsets in the tournament’s history, Argentina wound up finishing in first place in Group C and will next play Australia.
Messi rolls into Saturday’s game suddenly in a strong position in likely his final World Cup.
“Now another World Cup begins.” Messi said, “and hopefully we can continue to do what we did today.”
As for Poland, it was ultimately a happy night, too, because the team went through as the group’s second-place team — on goal difference ahead of Mexico, which beat Saudi Arabia 2-1 — and will next play defending champion France.
Messi ended up relieved after failing to score a penalty for the second straight World Cup. It was awarded after he was hit in the face by the flailing hand of Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who made amends by diving to his left to block Messi’s kick in the 39th minute.
“I’m upset that I missed the penalty, but the team came back stronger after,” he said.
Surprise run by Socceroos: Australian soccer may have a new golden generation.
Mathew Leckie scored and the Socceroos beat Denmark 1-0 at Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah to advance to the round of 16 at the World Cup for only the second time.
“I’m just so proud we’ve been able to put smiles on people’s faces,” coach Graham Arnold said, noting this is the first Australian team to win two straight games at a World Cup. “Maybe we’re talking about a new golden generation.”
The last Socceroos team to earn that honor got Australia into the knockout stage in 2006. This team did it again, and Arnold believes the achievement is worthy of a national holiday.
“Give the people a day off,” he said. “I think there will be some hangovers and some joy.”
Australia finished with six points in Group D. Defending champion France won the group on goal difference despite losing to Tunisia 1-0 in the other group match.
All-women referee crew to make history: French referee Stéphanie Frappart will become the first woman to take charge of a men’s World Cup game when she handles Germany vs. Costa Rica on Thursday.
FIFA also picked two women as assistants to Frappart — Neuza Back of Brazil and Mexico’s Karen Diaz Medina — to complete a first-ever all-female refereeing team on the field.
A fourth woman match official FIFA picked for this World Cup, Kathryn Nesbitt of the U.S., will also be working at the Al Bayt Stadium as the offside specialist in the video review team. Two other women, Salima Mukansanga of Rwanda and Yoshimi Yamashita of Japan, are also on the FIFA list to referee games in Qatar.
FIFA made the historic appointments for the 44th of the 64 games being played in Qatar.
Frappart, 38, previously was picked for fourth official duties.